Ice in My Veins
by TheRedRidingHood
Summary: Finished!Read and Review guys, unless you wnat more it will be the last for a while so let me know!
1. Default Chapter

"This is a pretty fresh scene Danny" Aiden Burn wrinkled her nose as she stared down at the bloody corpse. The victim lay on his back in the snow, which in some places was knee deep. His blood was a shock of red over the freshly fallen snow and was already beginning to freeze as a new wave of snow fell from the darkened sky.

"The uniform who answered the call was only a couple minutes away and the other guy was right behind him, they got in here within minutes. Plus the original call was for shots fired" Danny Messer, his blonde hair mostly hidden under a black woollen cap coughed into his sleeve.

It was a rough, harsh sounded cough and went on for long enough that Aiden shot him a doubtful look and crossed her arms, popping a hip to regard him as he straightened up. "What!" he half snapped at her.

"You want your lung back from where you heaved it up on the floor?" she asked. "How sick are because I just got over the flu and I don't even know what germs mutate into inside of you so you better not be contagious Danny 'cos I swear to Buddha -"

"Your concern is touching Aiden, really it is" Danny half smiled and Aiden realised how pale he was.

"Seriously, are you okay?" she stepped towards him, noticing suddenly quite how blue his eyes where. '_Whoah, where did THAT come from?'_ she asked herself, filing it away as Danny shrugged.

" Its just a bug, its been goin around, Flack had it and I think I might have accidentally finished his beer the other night so…" he trailed off.

Aiden pulled her glove off and pressed her hand to his forehead, making him blink and flinch back. "Relax Mr anti social, I just want to see if you have a fever" she told him, putting her hand back in place. "Okay, you 're running kinda hot Danny, maybe you should go home" she said pulling her hand back.

" I'm fine Aid, I swear to God I'm okay! Your _actual_ concern is appreciated but unnecessary" He grinned that dazzling grin of his at her and she smiled back.

Don Flack strode over to the crime scene, cell phone in hand. His long legs carried him quickly over the snow, which only reached up to mid shin on him. In unison. the Five feet Eight inch tall Danny and the five foot six inch Aiden looked down at their soaked and freezing legs, damp up to knee level, and glared at the six feet two Flack whose pants seemed to be made for skiing. "Bastard" they muttered to one another under their breath.

"So Mac's car wouldn't start because of the cold but he's on his way now, he said he's about 30 minutes away and to just get started. Jeez, aren't you guys cold?" he asked them, eyeing the black dress pants that Aiden wore and the beige suit that Danny had on.

"Why, is it cold?" Danny asked sarcastically, making Aiden laugh and Flack smile grimly.

"Whatever Messer, you guys just do your stuff before the snow covers it all" He shot back ,only half serious, turning on his heel to head back towards the waiting cars. There must have been a hidden patch of ice under the snow because one of his feet slid out from under him as a sudden breeze caught the back of his jacket and raised it, so that as he fell he landed in the snow, soaking the back of his shirt.

Aiden whooped and laughed and Danny bent almost double clutching his stomach as he laughed out loud. Flack climbed awkwardly to his feet.

"Hey man you okay? You cold!" Danny yelled.

Flack shot him a look then chuckled, knowing he was beaten. " you'll get yours Messer, you just wait!2 he called back, heading, carefully now, back toward the cars.

15 minutes later Aiden and Danny had found something interesting. They had seen the footprints leading **to** the body form the road when they arrived at the scene; three sets, one clearly the victims, two presumably belonging to his killer. But there had been no prints leading **away** from the body. They had scouted around and finally foun the foot prints in the snow. Three feet away from the body. " So what, a basketball player killed our vic?" Aiden asked as she mixed the prill sulfur to take impressions of the footprints.

Danny smirked and tipped his head to the side like a bird to get a better look at the prints. "No…" he said, Stepping around, over them. He looked at the body three feet away, then at the footprints, then in the direction the footprints headed, down the small incline and along the small path that ran by the railing, which in turn ran by the river. The river was moving quickly today, snow barely collecting at the banks 15 feet below the banks. " We know that two more people where here…what if they helped one another, like if one gave his buddy a boost to get over here then the other one jumped and his friend caught him. That way the prints start over here and we get all confused about 'em. Or they hope we do but we're just _that_ good." He mused "Aiden, what's wrong with these prints?" He asked suddenly, standing up straight. He looked at his own footprints.

"How do you mean?" Aiden replied, dropping more sulfur pellets into the small propane heated pot.

"I…I don't know" he told her "something's wrong with 'em but I cant…I cant put my finger on it" he continued, sounding vaguely agonized. He looked up at the heavy clouds, blinking as snowflakes fell into his eyes.

"What?" Aiden looked up at him.

" Shit, I don't know, just…something." again he looked in the direction the footprints headed, curving away around the low hill. "I'm gonna see if these lead anywhere interesting" He picked up the camera from his pack, slinging the strap around his neck.

"Be careful" Aiden called after him, her attention on the pot in front of her.

As she sprayed paint into one of the footprints she paused to look at it, trying to see what had disturbed Danny so much. Whatever it was it was lost on her and she shrugged, squeezing down on the top of the can and letting the red paint fill the shoe print.

" Wow, good prints!" Mac Taylors voice cut through Aidens attention as she used tweezers to pluck a piece of…something from within one of the prints. She jumped, freezing her arm in case she damaged the evidence. Mac crouched beside her, holding out a small glass vial for her to deposit the item which Aiden could only call "Gooey" Mac provided the word.

"That sounds like a Bonasera original" Aiden turned to grin at her boss.

Mac smiled and nodded as he pushed the lid onto the vial and held it up to examine it in the light. " Looks like…solid flem" he said, grimacing

"Oh. Nice" Aiden matched his grimace, shooting a look at the end of her tweezers.

" So what do we have?" Mac nodded in the direction of the corpse.

"White male, looks about twenty to twenty five years old, two gunshot wounds to the chest, looks pretty much point blank. The call came in just under an hour ago, somebody driving by reported hearing gunshots, two uniforms responded in a matter of minutes because they where nearby anyway, the first car was sitting out the last half hour of their shift, the second car just got lucky" Aiden filled him in as he walked down the line of prints.

"Three perps" he stated

"No the third print is Danny, he went to see where they lead" Aiden corrected him.

"When?"

"About" she checked her watch "ten minutes ago. This embankment runs pretty far, I think he was thinking get away car"

"What's down there?" Mac asked

"A boat house" Flack told them as he walked over "Uniforms got to rustle kids out of there every month or so, they go in there to drink. There's an old jetty too, it's pretty old. Every now and then some drunken pubescent wanders out onto the thing and, well, becomes and _ex _drunken pubescent" Flack visibly shuddered.

"Cold, Flack?" Aiden asked innocently.

"Funny. Hey where's Stella?" he asked, changing the subject smoothly.

"Day off" Aiden replied, grinning at him "She told me she was gonna lie in until noon and that we where only allowed to call her if somebody died!"

Mac frowned. "Aiden, what's wrong with these shoe prints?" he called.

"Danny asked me that exact same question!" Aiden snapped, marching over to stand beside Mac. "I'm sorry, I don't see it" she confessed.

"These are Danny's right?" He pointed to Danny's prints, different from the others in that his where slightly smaller, and not made by a boot unlike those of the suspects.

"He's got little feet" Flack chuckled

"And these are the suspects'…this is…not right" Mac frowned deeper, if that was possible.

"What!" Aiden snapped.

"The snow's been falling constantly since you arrived right? And we already know this is a fresh scene…there's more snow starting to fill in the suspects prints than there is Danny's…but not all that much more…I don't think you guys where much more than a couple minutes behind the killers" he explained. "Flack, how wide is our containment zone for this scene?" The older man asked. "Does it go as far as the boat house?

"Uh, yeah, yeah cos this is all enclosed around here, there's a fence somewhere, the gate in was wrecked years ago but weirdly, the owner's good about keeping his fence maintained. Least that's what the uniforms told me. Why?"

"I saw the guys on the gate, how long have they been here?" Mac asked, his voice holding an edge that made Aiden step back from him, one hand half reaching for her gun on her hip.

Flack picked up on it too and reached for his radio as he answered "I know for a fact that one of those cars has been here the whole time because he and the other car arrived here at the same time and Eddie, on the gate, he stayed back to guard the gate, he's the one that knows about the fence" he replied "you thinking we might have trapped our killers?" he said to Mac as he keyed his radio "Eddie, this is Don, I'm here at the scene, listen buddy, you see anybody leave in the time since you arrived?" he spoke into the mike.

Aiden couldn't make out the reply but Flack cursed out loud "No body left, no one on car no one on foot" he informed them. He looked in the direction Danny had gone what suddenly seemed like an eternity ago "That boat house has access to the road, if they've walked there to meet a car and we've trapped them in…Danny…" he let the thought finish itself.

Mac had his cell phone pressed to his ear, his face grim as he paced tapped his free hand against his thigh impatiently. "Come on Danny" he muttered "pick up the phone"

"He may just have it on silent, you know how he is at a scene" Aiden stated even as Flack waved to a group of uniforms who started down the embankment toward them.

"He sets it to vibrate, he'd be able to feel this" Mac told her, vocalising what she already knew.

As one the CSI's and police headed after Danny, hands on their guns. Mac was still trying to reach the young CSI on his cell, but the look on his face did not inspire much hope in Aiden.

Ten minutes previously Danny had stopped to photograph a print and looked back the way he came, blinking in surprise when he realised he had gone further than he had thought. He had walked around the gentle curve of the embankment far enough that he couldn't see Aiden and the crime scene anymore. His eyes where drawn back to the shoe prints and he paused. Danny placed one hand on his gun, tapping his fingers against it for a second. The small movement seemed to reassure him and he set off again, totally engrossed in the task. He rounded another gentle curve and the ground beneath the snow changed under his shoes. He stopped and looked up, pushing his glasses further up his nose as he blinked at the old boat house.

Once again he looked back the way he had come. He shrugged inside his coat, wanting to button it but not willing to risk cutting off his own access to his gun. Looking at the footprints he had figured out why they had bothered him, and while he didn't have all the information about how enclosed the scene was, he had put two and two together. He made for the boathouse, pushing his coat back like a gunfighter, his hand hovering over his gun. The snow was more than thick enough to mute his steps as he carefully, quietly approached the old wooden building. He reached the wall, listening intently. At first all he could hear was the rushing water over the wall, but as he concentrated, he thought he could make out voices. He took a step closer to the door, cocking his head. He could definitely hear voices within the boathouse. Almost silently he drew his gun, holding it in a double grip in front of him. He edged along the wall, listening to the exchange as it grew clearer.

"When can we get out of here? I'm freezin' my ass off"

"Look, the cops where quicker to respond than we thought they would be, we just gotta wait around until they leave."

"Hey, you guys did good, just relax, trust me okay?" a third voice put in. Danny paused and worked out in his head that this guy must have been the guy who dropped them off at the embankment to do the killing. Now here he was to pick them up again. The area got enough car traffic that it would have seemed like the killers just vanished.

"Look you guys did the thing with your shoe prints right?" the third voice asked.

"Yeah"

"Well that'll confuse 'em, trust me!" The guy reassured his companions.

Danny resisted the urge to laugh out loud as he got nearer to the door, his eyes focused entirely on the gap where one of the doors hadn't closed all the way. He stepped away from the wall, ready to enter the boat house when he heard something that made him stop;

"Where the hell did Tino get to already? I mean how long does it take a guy to piss in the snow!"

Danny froze, some ancient instinct telling him there was some one behind him, some one big. The cold hard metal of a gun barrel touched the back of his neck and Danny cursed his own reckless stupidity, raising his hands without needing to be told. The gunman, presumably Tino reached forward and plucked Danny's weapon from his hands, pushing forward with the gun at Danny's neck to make the CSI step forward. Danny entered the gloom of the boathouse, his eyes automatically scanning the room, an instinctive reaction bred from a combination of years as a CSI and growing up in Tanglewood. He looked for anything he could use, be it a weapon or a way to escape. The room did not yield many prospects for either, unless he counted the shiny new Jeep parked within, but somehow Danny suspected he would not gain access to the Jeep all that easily.

Tino shoved him harder than was necessary and Danny had to stagger to keep form falling on his face.

"What the hell is this!" a high panicked voice asked.

Danny thought it was a stupid question since it was pretty screamingly obvious that he, Danny was a cop and that the gunman, Tino had caught him snooping around outside, but Danny didn't share his opinions with his new friends.

"Well, we're screwed" the second voice Danny had heard from outside piped up as its owner stepped forward. It belonged to a young man in his twenties with the dark hair and eyes of an Italian. The kid was handsome and he knew it, holding his face carefully even thought there was no one around to admire his high cheekbones and masculine pout. He stepped close to Danny, staring down at him from his six feet four inches of height with a less than pleased look on that oh so perfect face. Danny had a sudden urge to break the kid's nose. The kid sighed.

His less attractive companion was as tall as he was but nowhere near as handsome. He was clearly a boxer, his nose already flattened, his face lumpy and uneven. Danny pegged him as an easy heavyweight; the sweater the guy wore as his only protection against the cold was straining at the seams around his massive arms. It was also splattered with fresh blood. The two separate Danny's noticed these things, the CSI Danny figuring that the blood splatters where spray back from the shooting while the Danny who had survived Tanglewood eyed the big guys reach, watched how Handsome let his gaze wader all over the room. Both Danny's reminded him of the two other guys in the room, Tino who still pressed the gun to Danny's neck and the as yet unseen fourth man. Even as Danny thought of him the guy walked out from behind Danny, grinning from ear to ear.

"I don't believe it!" the guy exclaimed as Danny figured that this guy too, was taller than him but seemed painfully thin under his clothes. "Danny fucking Messer!" Skinny stated and Danny stared at him, confusion racing across his mind.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Danny asked, grateful that his voice didn't shake.

"Danny it's me! Vince, Vince Pencamo, we went to high school together" Skinny, Vince explained and Danny gazed up at him mentally adding weight to the face, removing a few hard years.

"Holy shit" he said blankly and Vince grinned again, looking around at his companions who seemed as confused by the exchange as Danny had been.

"Vince, long time no see" Danny greeted him carefully.

"Yeah man. I guess its true then, that you're a cop now?" Vince asked, his eyes growing cold as he waved to the badge Danny wore on his belt.

"Well, sort of. My job is on the more scientific side of it" Danny told him, his voice still careful and blank. He got the feeling that all was not right inside of Vince, his head included.

"How'd you mean?"

"Well, you know your fingerprints? I'm the guy who finds them and collects them and finds out that they're yours. I'm a CSI, a Crime Scene Investigator." He replied.

"Oh. I guess you're here about that whole thing back there" Vince waved a hand vaguely in the direction of the crime scene. "You know how it is Danny, these two here-" he motioned to Handsome and Boxer "they want to make the grade, get into the gang. We had an errand needed running any way so we figure what better way for them to make their bones right!" Vince said, pulling a cigarette from behind his ear and a lighter firm his jacket pocket. "You remember when you had to do it" he said casually as he lit the cigarette.

"No, I don't, I never did that remember?" Danny corrected "I ran some messages back and forth and got my ass kicked a bunch of times for you guys but I never killed anybody for Tanglewood" he stated, choosing his words carefully.

"Oh yeah. That's right, Dino and Howard loved you, even when you said no to 'em over stuff, they couldn't get enough of this runty little blonde kid who doted on his old man and played baseball better than any kid I ever saw." Vince mused, his voice still cold. "You know, I really, really hated you"

"Yeah, I know, you kept picking fights with me" Danny agreed.

"I did, didn't I? Hey you remember, I used to kick the shit out of you every time we got into it?" Vince asked, taking a long drag on the cigarette, his voice growing warm with the recollection.

"No, actually, I don't" Danny smiled grimly.

Vince grinned, shrugging and casting a look around at the other three who smirked back "Well I don't blame you, I wouldn't remember too good either if somebody bounced my head off've the pavement-" he started to brag.

Danny interrupted him " No, I mean, I don't remember you kickin my ass whenever me and you got into it because the only time you ever beat me that bad was those times when you had your brothers wait around for me after school and hit me from behind. Those times, you put me in the hospital more'n once, but when it was just me and you goin at it, I beat you like the bitch that you always where" He stated, his voice matter of fact calm.

Vince flicked the cigarette at Danny in a practised movement, the lit butt catching Danny on the cheek. Danny swiped at it as Vince moved toward him fist raised, and Danny just had time to figure which side the blow was coming from before Vince hit him and he staggered. Boxer and Handsome moved so that the four encircled him and Danny lunged for Handsome, swinging with a single intent. His fist connected and Handsome's nose crumpled under his knuckles, blood spurting from his nostrils. Handsome roared, spinning away and falling to the ground and even as someone hit Danny from behind he grinned maniacally at the blood on his knuckles. He hit the floor and rolled as feet stomped down where he had been, the movement bringing him onto his hands and knee's. Someone kicked him incredibly hard and he gasped as he felt something crack and blood well up in his mouth. He spat the blood and tried to stand but some one big, he figured Boxer, punched downwards, catching him in the side of the head with a blow that dizzied him. His arms gave out, then his knees and suddenly he was laying on the floor, curled up as small as he could get while they kicked and punched him.

Some one grabbed the back of his jacket and dragged him to his feet, his every bone, muscle and organ screaming in protest. Danny blinked but there was blood in his eyes and his glasses where gone. "Vince there's a dozen cops comin' our way!" someone snapped and Danny felt himself be pulled forward. His legs didn't seem to want to work and he tripped, grabbing for the arm of whoever held his jacket. His right wrist flared in pain and it took him longer than he liked to recognise the pain of a broken bone.

Vince's voice sounded nearby and Danny realised that it must have been Vince holding him up. "AAW SHIT!" Vince spat "Screw it, start the car, we'll blow outta here" He told the others.

"What about him?"

"I got a plan for him just get in the car!" Vince yelled as he dragged Danny again.

Danny blinked rapidly and found he could see a little clearer. The light had changed and there was a cold wind blowing against his skin. Danny could hear and smell the river. He wondered why that was as he was propelled forward and some where, far away, someone yelled his name. He blinked again and wiped at his eyes with his left hand. It helped, his focus wasn't great but he could see.

"Can't have you telling your cop buddies who did the shootin' now can we Danny boy?" Vince hissed in his ear and suddenly Danny knew what Vince's plan was.

He grabbed at Vince's jacket with his good arm." Vince you kill me and every cop in this city is gonna come after you" Danny growled, finding it a lot harder to speak than it should have been.

He noticed a feeling of heaviness on one side of his head and pain shooting through his skull like a laser guided bullet. His vision dimmed and he had a brief moment to wonder when he had gotten hit in the head before Vince shoved him backwards. Then he was falling and then he hit the water which was colder than anything he had ever known. His entire body stopped, as though someone had thrown a switch and he couldn't remember how to breathe. The heaviness in his head began to grow and although he knew he was under water, and that this was a bad thing, he just couldn't think if what he was supposed to do to fix it. His lungs told him to breath and that seemed like a good idea so he had opened his mouth to draw in air before his mind was able to remind him about being under water. He still couldn't seem to remember how to swim even though he knew that he knew how, he remembered that day at the community pool when he was five and his dad had said 'first lesson' and thrown him, literally, in at the deep end. 'I was a friggin expert swimmer after that', Danny told himself.

He noticed that the heavy feeling in his head was gone and now he felt tired, and since he couldn't see any reason not to just let the fatigue win him over, he did.

"NO!" Mac, Aiden and Flack all screamed as one as the cadaverously thin man pushed the obviously beaten Danny off the side of the Jetty. They opened fire as the man ran back into the boathouse and seconds later a new looking jeep burst out through the half rotten doors, speeding up the narrow road that led to the gate. Mac ran for the boat house with the others close behind as on of the uniforms began yelling into his radio for paramedics and rescue, and for the cops on the gate to intercept the Jeep.

They ran through the shattered doors, each cop or CSI noticing the smashed camera, the smashed glasses and the blood on the floor. As the reached the jetty the officers slowed just enough that they could test the rotten wood before proceeding. They edged forward, heading for the broken section of railing from which Danny had been pushed. "I don't see him!" someone called "The currents pretty strong, he might have been dragged"

"There!" Flack yelled, vaulting the railing nearer to the boathouse so that he landed on the little beach in front of the boat house. He dropped 15 feet and hit the ground running. Mac followed suit and Aiden lowered herself enough that she was hanging on by her fingertips from the jetty before letting herself drop. The sand absorbed most of her momentum and she didn't break an ankle in the high heeled boots she wore and she ran up the beach to where the others where dragging Danny form the water.

They turned him onto his back and where administering CPR as she reached them. Danny was too pale, his already fair skin tinted blue. He wasn't moving, he wasn't breathing, he just lay there while Mac knelt above him, raised on his knees as he pressed down on Danny's chest, pumping rhythmically. Flack had his hands on Danny's face, holding his mouth open as he breathed air into his lungs.

"Oh God" Aiden breathed, stepping closer to see if she could do anything to help.

Danny just lay there. He only moved because of how hard Mac was pressing on his chest while Flack swore in time with Mac's compressions.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit" he counted off the compressions before doing his part.

Aiden heard the whoop of an ambulance somewhere above them and looked up at the barrier. "Can they get down here!" She turned to one of the uniforms.

"I…" The uniform turned to some of the others who had followed them down onto the beach "you two head up that way, you, Mike, climb back up on the jetty and intercept that bus, tell the medics where we are, tell them we need, uh, oxygen, blankets, I don't know, adrenalin, tell them he's cold, go now" The older man waved two of the younger men up the beach in the opposite direction from the jetty "Find some kind of a boat ramp or something, some way for them to get down here with a stretcher" he yelled as they jogged away.

Aiden smiled a grim thank you. At him and turned back to Danny.

"Wait, wait!" Mac was saying.

Flack paused and stared down at Danny anxiously. Danny coughed, water welling up in his mouth. Mac grabbed Danny's shoulder and turned him onto his side, thumping his back to bring up more water. Danny coughed again.

"Hey, Danny boy, wrong time of year to take a swim buddy, come on, wake up" Flack leant down to pat Danny's face gently.

Danny was taking short, rapid breaths, but he didn't respond.

"Danny, I'm not kidding man, wake up, you're scaring Mac" Flack tried again. There was no response. " I'm not getting anything" He looked up at Mac and Aiden.

Aiden looked up the beach as Mac began to shrug out of his jacket to cover Danny. "Mac, the paramedics are coming, there's a boat ramp up there" She told her boss, pulling her own jacket off and handing it to Mac.

"Damn it he's really cold, and his pulse is hardly there" Mac said, his fingers pressed to Danny's neck.

"Christ, somebody kicked his ass Mac, his heads bleedin' all over the place, I think his arm might be broken" Flack growled. He grabbed his radio again. "Eddie let every body know, that jeep that raced out of here so fast, make sure our people know they tried to kill a cop" he stated, his voice filled with barely restrained anger.

Aiden stepped back as the paramedics arrived, pulling Mac backwards with her.

She pulled her cell phone from her pocket and turned away from the grim faced medics as she punched in Stella Bonasera's number. The older woman answered the phone on the third ring, her voice thick with sleep.

"Someone better be dead" she growled, and Aiden felt tears well up into her eyes.

"Um, we're at the crime scene, Danny's hurt" she started.

"Where are you!" Stella asked, her voice instantly alert. Aiden told her. "I'll be there" she snapped and the phone clicked off.

Aiden turned back to see that the paramedics had moved Danny onto a stretcher and where getting ready to move him. One of them was holding a bag near his face, pumping oxygen into the mask that covered Danny's nose and mouth. He was covered in one of those thermal blankets that looked like tinfoil, and Mac was holding the coats, a helpless look on his face.

" I called Stella" Aiden told him, not knowing what else she could say.

Mac nodded. "Okay, good" He said, watching as the paramedics began to wheel Danny away "Alright, I'll go with them to the hospital, Aiden, you and Flack go back to the original scene and keep working it, remember that the guys that did that are the same guys that…that did this. When Stella gets here, she can work the boathouse, and I'll call in some of the night shift guys to help out. Flack, can you arrange for some uniforms to meet me at the hospital?" he turned to the younger man.

"Yeah, of course. Wait, why, you think he's gonna need protection?" Flack asked.

"The guy who pushed didn't seem to be trying to cover his face at all, he really didn't think we would be able to get Danny out of the water in time" He began to explain, starting to shiver in the snow.

"We almost didn't" Flack said grimly.

"We _almost _ didn't, but we did, he's breathing, and right now he's our star witness, I want him protected, this is going to be all over the news, I can feel it and if the guys chasing em don't catch them, the killers and who ever else might have been helping them are going to know that he's alive." Mac finished.

Flack was nodding, his dark blue eyes full of anger the way his voice had been. "Hey Mac, purely out of curiosity, what would happen if when I brought a guy in, say somebody who, I don't know, hurt a cop or something, hypothetically speaking of course, and he complained about how all these cops beat the crap out of him?" he asked, his tone conversational.

"Would this hypothetical guy have bruises?" Mac replied his own tones blank.

Flack wrinkled his nose as he thought. "He wouldn't have to" he stated.

"Then he wouldn't have a case. But if he did have bruises, his lawyer might be able to get him off, if he was convincing enough. Why do you ask?"

"Like I said, I'm just curious. I guess you learn something new everyday huh? What if he resisted arrest and we where forced to subdue him. Excessively. With night sticks?" Flack continued.

"Hey, if the guys resisting arrest you're allowed to shoot him" Aiden put in.

"That's right, I'd forgotten that. You better go Mac, they'll leave without you" Flack smiled and raised his radio again.

As Aiden walked past him, heading for the boat ramp, she was sure she heard him telling the uniforms he was speaking to about not leaving any marks. But she couldn't swear to it.


	2. wish

First off, thanks so much for the reviews, nice to hear someone who isn't a direct relative and therefore obliged to compliment my writing : D . Um, not really sure how I'm supposed to do the disclaimer bit so I'll just say, I don't own the csi NY gang (yet….) but anyone else in the story is an original creation. Probably more swearing so be warned. I'm not sure if Danny talking to himself is something I've read in another fiction or something I've actually seen on the show, if I've stolen it off some one PLEASE don't hate me! Apologies, this is really very short but I don't like the thought of taking ages to write a second chapter and leaving people hanging, I promise the next one will be longer and more exciting, this is just something for you guys until I've\figured out where I want the story to go. Read it slowly, make it last Enjoy.xxxxxxxxxx

Mac glared at the aged Doctor, knowing that the man wasn't doing anything wrong. That didn't change Macs glare though, and he could feel his face pulling into a grimace as he asked the question "Can I see him?"

The doctor sighed, running a hand through his whiter than white hair and shrugged wearily. "Look, his condition is such that only immediate family can see him. Or perhaps, a CSI…" He trailed off. His voice was baritone deep and he had an accent, Russian maybe.

Mac smiled grimly, "Oh, I see. Well let me get your statement as a doctor then, how is he?"

"Mr Messer suffered numerous injuries, his right arm is broken, he has severely broken ribs and there was some internal bleeding that we stabilised. He has numerous cuts and bruises but our main concerns are with his body temperature and his head injury"

"How do you mean?" Mac looked up at the taller man.

"We know he went in the water so we're treating him for hypothermic shock as well as pumping him full of anti biotics, but we cant seem to warm him up. He's at an acceptable temperature now but that's _with _thermal blankets and a warm saline drip. And someone must have kicked him or hit his head with a brick because he has a fractured skull and swelling on the brain. And…he stopped breathing more than once on the way over here, we had to shock him…he's got a tube in his throat helping him breath." The doctor explained.

Mac stepped back as if the doctor had taken a swing at him.

"He's in a coma" The doctor finished.

Mac blinked and looked at his feet, nodding slowly as he took it in. "Will he wake up, will he come off the ventilator?"

" It's hard to say, with this type of injury…he could wake up in the next five minutes and be fine, or be brain damaged. The same thing applies, I don't know, three months or more, he could wake up and just be himself or he could wake up and need to be re taught how to speak and swallow. Or he may just not wake up at all."

"I want to see him," Mac stated, his voice empty and the doctor nodded and led him to Danny's quiet, private room.

Danny lay in the bed, covered in thick blankets. His face was covered in cuts and scratches, a few centred around his eyes where his glasses had smashed and bruises coloured his face unnaturally. The tube in his mouth was attached to a machine. Danny 's chest rose and fell as the machine hissed and pumped air into his lungs.

"Aw, Danny" Mac said softly. He held his kit in one hand and looked questioningly at the doctor. " Can I, process him, get samples form under his nails and…I'll need his clothes too" Mac asked.

"Of course, the nurses have his clothes for you, I'll tell them to bring them in to you" The Doctor said quietly.

"Thank you" Mac said, and the doctor slipped out.

Mac stepped forward, taking a deep breath and sighing out in an attempt to clear his head. "Okay" he said, " What do we have, what did you get for me Danny" he started, pausing as e realised that he was talking to himself, a habit Danny was notorious for. A sudden visual memory of Danny pacing around the lab talking out a case with no one but himself made Danny smile. He remembered once seriously wondering if Danny had a split personality after seeing him actually argue quite heatedly with himself over whether or not an unusually placed print was crucial evidence or not.

"You'd better wake up Danny, Stella'll be pissed if you don't" He told the unconscious CSI as some one knocked gently on the door.

It clicked open and a uniformed head poked in. Mac recognised Officer Murphy, possibly the most Irish looking guy on the force; His hair was a shocking read and his pale skin was basically one big freckle. He looked like a choirboy. A six feet six inch 45 year old choirboy, but still, a choirboy. Mac wondered where Tia, Murphy's six fee _eight_ Amazonian partner was "Hey Mac, Don sent us to sit guard, there's another couple of guys comin over in half an hour so we're gonna stagger the shifts so nobody's getting tired and uh, a bunch of people said that they can come in once there shifts are over if you want extra hands…How's he doin?" he asked, his voice gravely from years of smoking.

Mac shrugged " The doctor said…he pretty much said its borderline. He could wake up right now or…"He trailed off, staring down at Danny. "How'd the chase go, I'm gonna guess they couldn't get em?" he asked, changing the subject.

Murphy stepped fully into the room walking over to the bed. "Eddie told me that they lost the jeep in the city, the bastards ran a light and caused an accident, got away while our guys where stuck behind the civilians. No body was seriously hurt" he added.

Mac nodded. " Hey can you help me out?" He asked "I need an extra pair of hands when I photograph the bruises you know?"

Murphy nodded "Sure, I'll just get Tia" he replied, "You want anything while I'm gone, I'm passin the coffee machines?"

"Um, black coffee I guess" Mac told him, and Murphy left.

Mac pulled up a chair and sat down, pulling his kit into his lap and clicking it open. He slipped a pair of latex gloves over his hands and set to work.

He started with Danny's hands, carefully scraping what he could from under his nails. There wasn't much left, the majority having been washed away by the river, but there was enough, something that could have been skin, something darker that seemed like "Leather!" Mac frowned, squinting at the tiny shred of material. It had been under Danny's thumbnail. Danny's hand had been curled into a fist, his thumb curled into his palm. "Well done Danny" Mac grinned, realising that Danny must have done it on purpose to preserve what he could.

Mac worked slowly, moving in sections for the collection. He didn't get much more trace evidence but he hadn't expected too. At some pint Murphy had come back in and now sat in one of the other chairs in the room, holding both his own coffee and Mac's. Tia stood near the bed, watching Mac work.. She was chewing her lip, her head bobbing to some inner rhythm , but her face was sad. "You and Danny are pretty good friends aren't you ?"Mac asked her as he put the last glass vial into his kit and pulled out his camera.

"Yeah" Tia replied " We live real close, so we run together, go to the gym, some nights we have movie nights as his place or mine" she told him, her voice unexpectedly high pitched considering her height.

Mac actually paused as he tried to picture the pair side by side. He found himself smiling "He's an entire foot shorter than you "He said to her.

"Yeah and he's not just white he's fair white, and lets face it, I'm about as black as I can get" Tia grinned back raising an eyebrow. "He and I discussed it once, how we must look when we're jogging" She chuckled, "It was one of those times when we where kinda buzzed on Buds and it seemed a lot funnier than it was…I'm gonna stomp the shit eater that did this into the ground. Hell, my moms'll help too, she thinks Danny's as cute as a button" She stated, her voice growing hard and angry.

"Good to know. I need to photograph him now" Mac replied as gently as he could. Tia was, to put it simply, a scary motherfucker. She didn't look like much despite her height, she was slim, not quite lanky but close, and her open pretty face added a sense of naivety to her character, but she had a certain glint in her eyes, a certain stare she could switch on if she thought someone was messing with her that Mac had seen subdue a crowd of angry drunken neo nazi bikers on a call out 4 months previously.

She nodded and reached out to gently brush a stray hair off Danny's forehead. It seemed a familiar gesture but the look in her eyes as she did it was sad. She rolled the blankets down to reveal the hospital gown that Danny had been dressed in. She reached very carefully behind his neck and undid the tie, pulling the gown forward. Murphy had moved to help and hissed, cursing out loud as Tia revealed Danny's chest. Bruises decorated his body. They ran across his ribs, up his chest on his right side so that even his shoulder was black-purple. "God damn mother fucking sons of bitches" Tia actually growled as Mac raised his camera and snapped of a series of shots. "You cant even see his tattoo's" she continued.

"Here, Mac, this looks like a…shit, like a damn shoe print" Murphy pointed at Danny's chest.

"Good eye Murph" Mac complimented the Irishman as he set up a perfect shot and pushed the button. He took a few more shots, telling himself as he zoomed in on one bruise or moved the lights around to improve the quality of a photograph, that it was just another case. But that didn't work because no case was just another case, each one was as important as the next, each victim as worthy of his full attention. But he had to pretend that he didn't get so deeply into each case because this was Danny, and what he really wanted to do now, instead of taking the time to take photographs and scrape samples from under his nails, was go out and find someone, anyone doing some thing wrong and beat them with a stick.

But he didn't, because it wouldn't help him feel better and it really wouldn't help Danny. Murphy and Tia turned Danny onto his side so Mac could photograph his back. It was worse than his front, meaning, Mac told the officers, that Danny had been curled into the fetal position for the majority of the attack.

"Standard New York self defence when you're out numbered, if you can't run, you make yourself the smallest target you can" Tia spoke Macs thought aloud.

"He'd be pretty small" Murphy half smiled "didn't stop em from whaling on him"

"I'm done here, I'm gonna take his clothes back to the lab and process them there, but I don't know if I'll get anything though" he told them.

"Well we're not going any where and I got a guy by the elevators and one at reception downstairs, plus about a dozen other guys who are gonna come sit in reception when there shifts are over. Anyone we don't like the look of asks after our boy he's gonna have a lot cops asking a lot of questions" Murphy told him.

Mac nodded, gathering up his kit. "Thanks Murphy, Tia, I appreciate this, I know Danny would-does too"

He stepped toward the door as Tia re tied Danny's gown and pulled the covers up. As Mac pulled the door open Tia called out "Mac, I think he's waking up!"

Mac called out of the door for a doctor and moved back beside the bed as Danny stirred, frowning as he began to come around. His breath caught as he struggled to breathe against the tube.

Tia leant down, taking Danny's hand and putting her mouth close to his ear and whispering rapidly to him. She told him to be calm, that he was in the hospital that there was a tube helping him to breath. As Mac watched Danny began to calm and blink as he opened his eyes.

A small team of doctors and nurses entered the room, gently but firmly pushing the cops out of the way. The doctor, the from outside the Russian, Dr Geller, began talking to Danny, explaining the situation and before very long Danny was coughing as the tube was removed. He sipped at the water handed to him by a nurse and looked around the room, squinting.

"Mac!" he whispered

"I'm here Danny" Mac told him, stepping back to the bed.

"I screwed up, I shoulda called for back up but I didn't know there was a fourth guy" Danny began, but Mac cut him off.

"No, Danny, the scene wasn't secure, this isn't on you" he told the younger CSI "you where just in the wrong place at the wrong time. How you feeling?"

"Um…numb..and a little cold. And totally high" Danny told him, actually smiling grimly. Do…do I remember, and correct me if I'm wrong, do I remember going in the water?" he asked "Cos my memory's kinda hazy and I really hope that one of these tubes is pumpin, I don't know, acid into my veins to kill the nasty ass bugs that are, as we speak, liquefying my organs" he snapped suddenly, his voice rising to a shout as he half sat up in the bed.

The movement was too much and he winced, falling back onto the bed and coughing painfully.

"Don't worry, we've got acid, we've got bleach we've even got regular anti biotics" Dr Geller joked pulling a thermometer from his pocket. It was one of those digital ear ones and Danny shifted as the doctor put the probe into his ear.

"Mac I knew one of the guys" Danny told Mac as the nurses began to push Murphy and Tia out of the door, telling them that the room was too crowded.

"Who was he?" Mac asked, pulling a note book and pen from his pocket.

"His name is Vince Pencamo, he's a Tanglewood, me an him where in school together, he hated my ass like you wouldn't believe" Danny told him "This was a Tanglewood hit, something about, the shooters where tryna make their bones, Vince needed our vic dead, he figured he could kill two birds with one stone-Will you get off!" He pulled away from the doctor as the man tried to look into his eyes with a pen light.

"Well the good news is, you're warming up, and since you're awake and clearly aware, you're doing pretty well. Considering you died twice" the doctor added the last with a touch of spite in his voice.

Danny stared at him then at Mac. "What?" he whispered.

"Danny you stopped breathing a couple times and they had to shock you to re start your heart" Mac stepped closer to the bed.

"Don't worry, you where only gone for a few minutes" The doctor said and Mac turned to glare at him.

"Doctor, do you mind!" He snapped as Danny pressed a hand to his own chest. "Danny, you're fine, but you need to stay here for a while. We got uniforms hanging out outside, just in case these guys try to take another swipe at you" Mac told Danny.

"I don't wanna stay in a hospital Mac, I friggin hate hospitals" Danny looked up at his boss.

"Its just a couple of days Danny I promise" Mac reassured him, " Besides, Tia's outside, I know you two are just the best of friends."

"Tia's here?"

"Yeah, she's right outside, you didn't see her when you woke up?" Mac frowned.

"Um…no. Send her in here!" he stated.

Mac grinned and picked up his kit. "your wish is my command" he said as he stepped out the door.

As he pulled the door shut behind him Mac heard Danny say "You better believe it is"


	3. How

Okay, this will be longer, back into the action and everything. The same applies, I don't own the CSI NY crew cries but I own the other characters. This will probably contain a lot more swearing and probably some violence so those who are faint of heart, you have been warned. Thanks for the reviews, keep them coming. Um, you tell me if you think there could be Danny/Aiden, I'm not a shipper. I may have come up with some things about the characters' pasts so bear with me it may be just friendship type stuff. I'm partially high on tea tree oil fumes so apologies if this randomly gets weird! Still trying to figure out what to do with it so bear with me! Read and Enjoy.

Aiden was chewing her nail, a habit she only reverted when something really worried her. She had been back at the lab for almost three hours and her evidence was well on its way to being processed, all she wanted now was word on Danny. She shook herself and stared back down at the mould she had taken from the original scene, one of the shoe prints. She looked from the print to the book in front of her, the photo 'line up' of other shoe prints that she was using to try and identify the print.

As she turned the page, she partially heard the door open and close behind her and glanced around to see Mac.

"Oh God Mac, how is he is he ok! She asked, all but jumping off her stool.

"He woke up just as I was about to leave, the doctor thinks he's gonna be okay but he has to stay over night" Her boss informed her.

Aiden felt like her whole body had been holding a breath and only now let it out. She put her hand to her mouth and took a few steps backwards so that she was leaning against the desk. "I really thought…" She started, looking up at Mac.

Mac just nodded. "It's kind of amazing that he recovered so quickly. The doctor didn't say anything but I think maybe because the water was so cold it helped some how, like an all over ice pack" He shrugged. "I got some stuff off've him, a photo of a print you might want to compare to the ones you got at the scene. I put everything else in to DNA and trace and I'm gonna go and process his clothes, for all the good it will do me" Mac said, somewhat pessimistically.

Aiden was grinning from ear to ear. "Well could he ID any of the attackers? I'm sorry, I'm just glad he's okay" She said to Mac's questioning look.

"He ID'd one of them; he said it looks like your original scene was a Tanglewood hit"

Aiden stopped smiling. "Shit" she said with feeling

"So, was this planned, I mean did they set it up to get to Danny?" She asked.

"I don't think so, I really think it was a coincidence, Danny even said that the guy told him the shooters where trying to make the grade for the gang and we trapped them in. I think Danny just has really shitty luck" Mac answered, smirking a little bit.

"So where's these photo's?" Aiden asked.

Mac handed her the digital camera. "Ready for printing in here" he told as she took it from his hands. She pressed a button on the camera to bring up the pictures on the screen on the back. "Oh God "She breathed, "This is Danny?"

"I'm afraid so" he told her quietly.

Aiden took a shuddering breath. Then another. "okay, I'll print these off, this one of the shoe print already looks like a match to what I have but I'll make an official comparison any way" she said, her voice steely.

"That's good Aid. Did Stella get back yet?" Mac asked as she turned toward the computer.

"Um no, she's still at the boat house" Aiden said "I called her when I left, she had just gotten started. She said there was a whole bunch of trace all over the place, these guys weren't careful" she told him, pulling the attachment cable out of a drawer and plugging the respective ends into the camera and computer.

"That's good, I'm betting these guys have a lot of their own personal priors so hopefully we'll have last known addresses"

The computer beeped as Aiden started to print off the photos. "I'll get back to you on the prints as soon as I can" she smiled at him, "And you should call Stella and tell her about Danny, she was freakin out. We all where, I guess. Oh and Flack too, he stayed with her just in case" she called to him as he walked out of the lab.

"I will" he called back "don't worry"

Mac ran down the stairs too quickly, slipping on the concrete as his foot hit the floor and crashing to the ground. "Mac!" Flack yelled, having to leap over Mac's prone form and skidding, grabbing the banister to steady himself. He had been moving so fast that he actually turned in a semi circle before he stopped.

"You okay?" He yelled to Mac as the older man began to climb painfully to his feet.

"I'm fine I'm fine, go get after them!" Mac snapped.

Flack didn't need telling twice and took off after the perps, kicking the door to the underground parking garage open and dropping to a crouch as he charged out. He could hear Danny yelling and cursing s he was dragged along.

"Get off GET OFF! The CSI cried out "You ugly mother Fucker let me go!"

"Danny? Hang on buddy!" Flack yelled, running toward the sound of Danny's voice.

"Flack, hurry up man" Danny yelled before his voice cut off suddenly.

Flack yelled for Danny again but there was no reply. He ducked behind a minivan and peered around the edge as Mac joined him, pressing his back to the side of the car.

He could see Vince Pencamo dragging Danny by the collar of the hooded sweater that Danny had changed into earlier. Danny was trying to fight but he was still injured and was gasping a lot. The Handsome man who Flack now knew to be named Sylvester Schiabbetta was glaring out at the parking lot, searching for Flack. He was holding a gun, a bullet from which had just killed an off duty uniform up by Danny's hospital room.

There was blood on Danny's face, his own and the cops, who had been standing in front of Danny when he was shot.

The Boxer whose name was still unknown grabbed the back of Danny's neck as the skeletal Vince jogged over to the same jeep he had driven out of the boat house a day and a half previously. Danny tried to twist out of Boxers grasp but the muscle bound giant punched Danny from behind, hitting one of Danny's many bruises, causing Danny to gasp in pain and go very still.

Boxer moved so he had one hand clamped over Danny's mouth and pulled a gun from the waist band of his jeans and pressing it to Danny's temple. Danny was dwarfed by the armed man but still struggled against his captor as Vince pulled the jeep round.

Vince opened his door and leaned out and pulling the back door open yelling "Put him in the back!" as Flack stood and ran out into the open, Mac just a second behind him.

"Freeze, NYPD, put the guns down let the man go!" Flack roared as he and Mac took up positions flanking the group.

Boxer was dragging Danny toward the jeep as Handsome, Sylvester brought up his gun, swinging it between the detective and the CSI.

"Back off, back OFF" Sylvester yelled, his eyes going wide with fear.

"Just hang on Danny" Mac said calmly as Danny tried to elbow Boxer.

"Get in the damn car!" Boxer yelled as Danny set his feet on the floor, shaking his head vehemently.

Sylvester was edging closer to the car "just back off, we're driving out of here" he stated, but his voice cracked as he spoke.

"Look Sly, we know about you; we know that that guy by the river, Marco, he was the first guy you killed right? And the second one was a cop. There is no hole in the world deep enough for you to hide right now and if you make this worse by hurtin another police officer, I promise you with God as my witness you wont survive your own trial Hell if you survive bein arrested I'd be very fuckin surprised" Flack said in a very low, very calm voice.

Sylvester was sweating, his gaze switching back and forth between the two cops. "We're driving out of here" he said with even less conviction than before.

"GET HIM IN THE CAR!" Vince practically screamed.

Boxer gave up trying to push Danny and just let go of him. Danny staggered back a little and Boxer half crouched and picked him up around the waist, carrying him.

Danny actually did scream as his bruised ribs where crushed under Boxers mighty arms. But somehow he kept his head and as Boxer got close to the car he brought his legs up and planted one foot on the side of the door and the other one on the top. He leaned back against Boxer as the big man tried to push him.

Sylvester now stood directly in front of the struggling Boxer. He glanced back and forth again then turned suddenly and brought the butt of his gun down on the side of Danny's head.

Danny went still and Boxer shoved him into the car as Sylvester spun back to face the cops. Flack squeezed the trigger and Sylvester staggered back wards, hitting the still open door. As he slid down, blood blossoming out of the wound in his stomach, he raised his own gun and there was a bang and Flack grunted, spinning and falling to the ground. Mac shot at Sylvester, hitting the man in the arm as the jeep sped forward. Mac ran after it, trying to get a shot at the tires but it was already heading up the ramp. He pulled a radio from his pocket and told the cops on the other end that the perps had Danny and that Flack and one of the perps where hurt.

"Don!" he yelled, running to the fallen detective.

Flack groaned as he sat up, pressing one hand to the top of his arm. "Guys a fucking lousy shot" He told Mac, wincing as he looked at the wound.

"They got away, they got Danny" Mac panted, helping Flack to his feet.

"Yeah but we got the pretty boy" Flack nodded toward the injured Sylvester.

They approached him, guns raised, but he was too weak to raise his own weapon.

"Where are they gonna take him Sly?" Flack asked.

Sylvester coughed painfully "f...fuck you" he panted.

"Now Sly, best not to forget that we can cancel those paramedics just as easily as we summoned them" Flack told him.

"You need me"

"We have CSI's" Flack stated " they'll figure it out Sly, this is just that bit easier"

"I don't know" Sylvester gasped

"Yes you do"

"No…Vince, he wanted to…mess with Messer….from when they where kids…he said we had to get him but not where we would go…I swear to God that's all I know" Sylvester coughed again.

"You know the cop you shot Sly? He wasn't even on duty" Flack said, his voice sad and hollow. "He's got….he had, a kid…are you in pain?"

"Yes"

"Good"

"Sly, where are they going?" Mac asked again.

"I.Dont.Know" Sly spat blood, the thick gobbet oozing slowly down his cheek.

Somewhere a door banged and paramedics and cops began to swarm into the parking garage. Mac kicked Sly's gun away from his hand, pointless now that the man was practically unconscious.

"Okay!" Flack called out, getting the attention of all of the officers who now filled the lot, guns drawn "Okay, this guy, he's today's shooter" He told the cops.

There was a bizarre Mexican wave movement as every single cop in the lot turned to glare at Sly, and the guns they all carried rose slightly. "He's too hurt to go anywhere, but his friends got away with Messer. We already know what there drivin do I want _everybody _out there lookin for him, we're gonna work under the impression that we have a time limit. These guys are armed, they have a hostage, and since they where willing to take on a hospital full of cops to get to one guy, we're gonna assume they're some sandwiches short of a picnic. Anybody who was upstairs just now stay behind to make a statement, I wanna know how the hell they got in here!" he yelled.

The cops scattered as ordered, maybe half a dozen of them staying behind to give statements.

A pair of paramedics removed Sly and another began to examine Flacks arm as Mac walked over nearer the ramp. He dialled Stella's cell phone.

"Bonasera?" She said brightly, and Mac heard Aiden in the background call out 'Hi Mac'

"Stell-Um, something happened at the hospital…Vince came back…he got Danny"

Sheldon Hawkes shook his head sadly as he pulled the sheet over the dead police officers face. "If its any consolation" he said quietly to Don Flack "He died instantly"

"Its not, but thanks. No pain right?" Flack looked up at Hawkes as the young doctor began to peel off his blood stained rubber gloves.

"I very much doubt it, the bullet-" he paused, trying to think of a way to explain it sensitively, a rare problem for the aloof ME "look, you don't need to know the gory details, just take my word for it, he wouldn't have had time to feel any pain before he died, he probably didn't even know he was shot" he explained "how's your arm?" he nodded to the sling Flack now wore.

"It hurts. But the pains good, it keeps me focused" Flack told him. " To be honest I'm just kinda glad I want wearing my jacket, you cant fix bullet holes in leather" he tried to joke, but it came out flat.

Hawkes smiled anyway. "Any new word on Danny?" he asked.

Flack frowned "No, these guys are in the wind. Sly's still in surgery, mac thinks we might be able to get something out of him when he comes out, if we can get the right doctor to sign off and say he's aware enough to make an official statement, we might be able to get him to tell us something he doesn't know he knows ya know?" Flack asked.

"Yeah, you just gotta find the right doctor though"

"We will…you know what makes it worse? Is Sylvester _did _ tell us that Vince wants to mess with Danny, to, I don't know, screw with him, hurt him…but, what does that even mean? I mean are they gonna be knockin him around the place, workin him over? Because if they're just gonna beat on him he might be ok, Danny grew up with that kind of crap, he knows how to take a beating, but I mean…Oh I don't know, and that's what's killing me, not knowing"

"I hear you, its like, we're stood here talking right now, Mac and Aid and Stella are working their asses off in the labs…my assistant Melvin is eatin a nasty ham and pickle sandwich in my office…-" Hawkes paused as Flack smiled grimly "And the whole time you're wondering, what about Danny, what's he going through right now, is he hurt, is he somewhere close…as a doctor, I'm wondering about his head, he had a pretty severe head injury and as much as he was up and about walking and talking, I'm not convinced he's all that healthy, and from what you've told me about them having to hit him to get him in the car…I'm concerned about what condition he's in, is he concussed, has the swelling and bleeding on his brain that put him in his mini coma in the first place recurred or has he gotten lucky?"

Flack stared at Hawkes. "Way to make me feel better doc" he stated, his voice monotone.

Hawkes shrugged, not getting it.

"I'm gonna go and see Mac, I'll get back to you" Flack shook his head, confused at the ME's odd behaviour.

Then a voice in his head reminded him 'this is Hawkes' and he wasn't so confused any more, and the behaviour wasn't so odd.

Danny frowned as he slowly awoke, taking the deepest breath that he could. He froze as his ribs stated their disapproval of this action. As his body threatened to mutiny, Danny sat up, slowly opening his eyes against the fairly faint light.

"Hey gorgeous" he heard Vince's voice call out.

"Oh God" he groaned " please just tell me I drank too much"

"Afraid not buddy boy, its just you, me and Chuck here" Vince told him.

"Chuck?" Danny asked "Wait the big guy!" he opened his eyes further.

"The Big Guy? I like that" came a gravelly voice that could only be Chuck.

"Whatever, where are we going?" Danny looked around the car as his vision cleared.

"Oh you'll just have to wait and see" Vince told him.

And so will my readers, mwahahahahahahahaha!


	4. Ice in My Veins

Hello my glorious readers, once again, thanks for the feedback, keep it coming, and I _still _don't own csi ny and any related…stuff, but the original characters are mine, all mine! Once again (again)warning for violence, swearing, the usual. I'm not sure if Danny is supposed to be Italian American because I don't know if the name Messer is Italian but based on what we know of the character, I'm saying he is.

R+R.xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Flack strode through the lab, or tried to. The atmosphere was subdued to say the least, with one officer dead and another missing, the CSI's and cops where far from upbeat.

No one made small talk, every utterance had purpose carried a meaning relevant to the case. In one lab, Aiden and Stella scoured Sylvester's clothes for any kind of evidence that might lead them to Danny. Mac was sitting near them reading through Vince Pencamo's criminal record to try and find any clues that would corroborate whatever trace Aiden and Stella picked up.

Flack joined them, settling carefully into a chair "You should be at home" Mac told him, barely looking up.

"Yeah, well" Flack shrugged on his good side.

"Okay" Mac put his file down "How in the hell did this happen?"

"Murphy and Tia collected everybody's statements and put this together" Flack pulled a folded sheath of paper from his inside pocket. " We also got the surveillance footage from the hospital so what I've figured is; at about 12:30 pm, just as Danny was dressing to leave, our guy Vince and his chunky buddy who we still know only as Boxer, pulled into the parking garage under the hospital. They got in by claiming that they where here to visit a sick aunt on the OAP ward. At about the same time, our friend Sylvester Schiabetta walked into the ER and asked where recovering patients would be sent. Since he didn't ask for Danny specifically, no body tried to stop him from getting the elevator up to the fourth floor. While he rode up, Vince and Boxer climbed up the stairs and waited for Sly on the landing by the door.

"Sly acted like he was trying to find a particular room and just wasn't sure where he should be going, but with the amount of cops hanging out outside Danny's room it was fairly obvious where he needed to go. Jackson Mayhew was in Danny's room helping Danny with his sneakers because Danny couldn't bend over too good" he paused briefly, moving his injured arm "Jackson was gonna escort Danny down to my car too so we could take him to the safe house. Jackson wasn't on duty; today had been his day off. He had offered to stay with Danny in the safe house today because his wife took their kid to visit her mother, and 'cause he and Danny are friends anyway. Jackson had walked out of the room and turned around, I assume to say something to Danny, which is when Sly stepped up and shot him point blank in the head. As soon as Jackson was down, Sly grabbed a hold of Danny and used him as a shield while he headed for the stairs. This whole thing came out of no where so none of the cops could react in time and by the time they could get their guns up, Sly was hiding behind Danny" he stopped again, actually having to grit his teeth as a wave of pain gripped him.

"Flack, are you okay!" Aiden asked, taking a half step toward him.

"Yeah, it just…itches" he lied slightly.

"It was about a minute later that me and you got to the floor Mac, and we chased 'em, and you know the rest" Flack finished.

Mac nodded and picked up the file. "Well, I don't like to say when I don't have something to compare it to, but the jacket we saw Vince wearing, the black leather one, I'm very sure that it's the same jacket that the scrap of leather under Danny's nail came from"

" And I've already compared the shoe prints from both the original scene and the photo of the bruise on Danny to Sylvester's shoe's that we got here, they're a match, Sly's going to prison for a loooong time "Aiden stated, pursing her lips as she leant back over the blood stained shirt.

"Did you get anything off've the clothes yet?" Flack asked.

"Some stuff that ties him to the original scene and victim, and some other stuff that'll probably be perfect in context, we just don't have the context to put it in" Stella told him.

"How do you mean?"

"Well we have some dirt from his shoes that I can see just by looking doesn't come from the original scene, it's a different colour, texture. And there's other stuff that I still need to get back from trace before I can even say what it is" Stella said.

"And there's this" Aiden announced as she stood up straight, a pair of tweezers held in her right hand. "Its some kind of fibre…it could be from rope…" she sniffed it "Believe it or not, it smells" she frowned. The 'fibre was actually a few fibres tangled together. It had been tangled around a button of the shirt.

"It smells?" Mac stepped beside her, matching her frown "Of what!"

"Of…salt and…is that fish…and oil, motor oil? It could be off a boat, I think it's been used to tie off a boat…" Aiden looked questioningly at Mac.

"You can tell that by smelling it!" Flack asked doubtfully, a sudden wave of pain making him grit his teeth again so that the question came out more aggressively than he intended.

"What, I know how salt, and fish, and oil smell, and when I smell them together I think 'boat'" Aiden snapped defensively.

"Hey I wasn't doubting you Aid but don't you need all that…spectro analysis stuff to figure out what it all is?" Flack shot back.

"We do need to do a proper analysis to be sure but she's right Flack, I think this came from a boat too" Mac said, his voice low and calming.

"Okay…so get the analysis done and make it official and since I'm not technically on duty and therefore cant go out in the field and smack people around until they tell me what I want to know" he took a breath " I'm gonna read through Vince's and Sylvester's files and see if either have had anything to do with a boat" Flack sighed.

As Aiden left with her sample, Mac and Stella followed to check on how far the lab techs had gotten with the other evidence that had been collected both from Danny's room in the hospital and the parking garage.

Flack sat down with the files. "Boats" he mused as he opened the file "boats, boats, stinkin'boats"

"You gotta be kidding me" Danny deadpanned as Chuck actually helped him out of the backseat of the jeep which he had been riding in for well over an hour. "Vince it's a boat? You got a running theme?" he asked.

"It's just somewhere where we won't be bothered" Vince assured him.

"Bothered? Why, what are we doin?" Danny asked, hoping he could stall them for as long as possible. He pulled a new pair of glasses form his pocket and checked to see if they where broken. They seemed to be okay, so he slipped them on gently.

"We're just gonna…reminisce" Vince grinned.

Danny shivered. He wore jeans, sneakers and a t-shirt under what was now a blood spattered hooded sweater and it had started snowing again. Plus, ever since he went in to the water at the original scene he had yet to feel truly warm, a side effect of immersion in almost freezing water which the doctor had assured him would wear off in time.

He had blood on his face too. He could feel it, dry and itchy on his skin. His ribs hurt, his arm hurt, his head really hurt and he could feel that funny heaviness again on one side of his head. It wasn't as bad as it had been back on that rickety dock, but something was wrong, he could tell.

"Hey Vince, I'm not really in the mood for reminiscing" Danny called, probing his head with one hand. His hand shook as he touched his own head, and he had a sudden strong visual recollection of Jackson Mayhew smiling at him at split second before Sylvester put a bullet in his brain. Danny remembered blinking as Jackson's blood splattered all over hi face, total shock freezing him long enough for Sly to move in and grab Danny.

He could feel a cut, a deep one, and his hand came away bloody. He realised that a lot more of the blood on his face and sweater was actually his than he had thought.

"I don't really care what you feel like Danny" Vince said with that same cheerful grin, "We're going on the boat, we're going to reminisce" he stepped up to Danny, grabbed the collar of Danny's sweater.

Danny staggered a little as he was dragged. Some childhood instinct kicked in and he ducked _this _way and twisted_ that _way and his collar slid from Vince's hand easily. He took a step back out of Vince's reach, looking down at the floor but turning his eyes up to watch Vince's reaction. The move came right out of the part of his memory Danny had labelled 'cute kid escapes'. It was one of a million manoeuvres Danny had employed as a kid growing up in New York to get out of any number of bad situations. They could include being dragged to the principal's office for slugging a classmate, usually Vince, or Danny's dad dragging him back to the apartment after finding him hanging out with Dino and Howard. Dad may have been into all that but he didn't like the two kids who got a kick out of the tiny blonde kid who wasn't afraid of anything.

The moves where most useful when rival gang members decided that they wanted to make an example of a Tanglewood boy, and not knowing that Danny wasn't a fully-fledged member, they often picked on him. If there where enough of them, they could hurt him pretty badly, and he had spent more than one night in hospital thanks to his affiliation with the gang. But a lot of the time, the thugs would underestimate him. They would be dragging him along to some alley somewhere to kick his ass and he would twist out of their grip. Sometimes he just cut and ran. But sometimes, if the mood took him, he would stand and watch them the way he did now with Vince. He knew how useful it was being an under sized little blonde kid with huge blue eyes. Plus he could cry on cue. On more than one occasion he had fooled some Peckham bay heavy into feeling guilty about trying to beat up a little kid. Then when they moved close enough to apologise he would jump on them, fists flying. Then later on after the cops where called he would play the cute card again and they would take pity on the poor little boy who got jumped by the cruel bullies.

He doubted crying would help him now, but he knew how harmless he looked standing alone in the snow. "What's that, 'Messer's patented escapes number five?'" Vince asked, turning to face Danny full on.

"It's a habit man, I don't like being dragged around like a five year old" Danny explained, glancing around out of the corners of his eyes. They where near to the commercial docks, on the outskirts. There where one or two warehouses in the immediate vicinity but Danny could see them from where he stood and they looked derelict. He tilted his head slightly and saw a distant parking lot, half filled with cars. It looked to be the parking space for a massive warehouse, beside which some kind of a tanker was docked. Danny tried to calculate the distance between his current location and the dock, which would undoubtedly be packed with people. His workings came up with a simple answer 'too far'.

He stepped back again. He knew they had guns, but he had to wonder if they would be prepared to shoot at him if he ran.

Vince was watching him carefully. "Don't try it Danny," he warned, "You might be fast but you're not _that _fast"

Danny glanced briefly at Vince then back at the lot. "I could put money on it that you won't make it Danny!" Vince said.

He didn't move closer, nor did Chuck. They both watched him. Vince had told Chuck about Messer after they had found out he was still alive, told him what to watch for if Danny wasn't being held.

"You wont shoot me Vince, I know you wont, you shoot me and everybody in that dock is gonna come lookin" Danny said quietly, his voice almost distracted. He was mentally checking himself, minutely moving each muscle, tensing and un-tensing to see where the pain was. His legs where sore and he knew they where bruised but that wouldn't impede him if he ran. His ribs where painful enough to cause him problems, but he knew he had run farther and faster with worse injuries before. His head worried him. There was a faint ringing in his ear now, and without touching the cut he knew he was still bleeding. There was a tingling feeling accompanying the heaviness, running up and down his neck as if someone where touching him with a feather.

"Maybe I don't care if people come lookin, huh Messer? You ever think about that? I want to mess you up anyway, killin you now wouldn't be as fun but it'll be the same outcome as if we got to…reminisce" Vince sneered.

"Well shit Vince if you're gonna kill me anyway then what have I got to lose" Danny half smiled.

"Don't you run Danny boy, don't you dare!" Vince snapped.

Danny awarded himself a smile. Then he ran, bolted from a standing start to a full on sprint in one fluid movement that Vince only saw because he knew what to look for.

Chuck missed it completely and yelled "Hey!" as Danny made a beeline for the lot.

They chased him, following his exact route across the broken, cracked tarmac but they still stumbled over the warped ground.

Danny was sweating, more from the pain in his ribs than anything else. He could taste the metallic tang of blood in his mouth, and every time his foot hit the floor he felt the impact on the wounded side of his head.

He clenched his teeth together and ducked his head, racing forward. He could here Vince behind him, yelling at him to stop. "Don't make me shoot you!" Vince shouted, but Danny knew him to be bluffing.

He risked a quick glance behind and was surprised to see Chuck steadily gaining on him. As he neared the lot he could see that a new looking chain link fence that was easily 12 feet tall surrounded it. _'This is like bein back at the ball parks when a brawl breaks out' _he thought to himself as he got within two feet of the gate and jumped forward, hitting the gate 3 feet of the ground. His ribs and broken wrist screamed in response and the wave of pain almost made him black out. He forced his fingers to grip the links of the fence and dug the toes of his sneakers into the gaps, thanking God and not for the first time that he had small feet. He began to climb, every movement eliciting an angry protest from his ribs and wrist as he hoisted himself up. He was gasping hard, the taste of blood in his mouth stronger than before. Sweat poured down his face, mingling with the blood and stinging his eyes. He couldn't believe how hard this was. In his battered condition he understood what it was like to be physically unfit and made a promise to the god of gyms that he would never skip a gym date with Tia again if he could just make it over the fence. He reached up and felt air, and realised he had reached the top. He pulled himself up to the top of the fence and paused there, meaning to get his breath back, but the dizziness that had been pulling at him as he climbed the fence took the opportunity and washed over him in a wave. He tipped sideways and fell the full twelve feet to the other side of the gate. He landed on his back, performing a minor miracle by holding his own head high enough to keep it from smacking against the floor too hard but it still hit, and it still hurt.

All the air whooshed out of him and he lay on his back, totally unable to breathe for what felt like an eternity. Then his body's survival instincts kicked in to play and he breathed in, rolling onto his side and up onto his feet before he had even finished drawing air into his lungs. He was staggering, bumping into cars as he tried to run and breathe at the same time, and now he actually was spitting up blood. He could feel something rattling in his chest and every drawn in breath felt like sucking pins into his throat and chest.

He heard some one hit the fence behind him and half turned to see Chuck struggling to get a toe hold on the fence. Danny cursed, wanting to cry in frustration.

"You take your time Messer "Chuck laughed "I'll be there in a second"

Danny gave Chuck the one finger salute, then turned and kicked the nearest car. His foot connected with the hood with a satisfying thump and almost immediately the car's alarm screeched to life.

Danny staggered over to another car and repeated the process, snickering a little wildly to himself. He was far from clearheaded, but he knew that the car alarms would draw people's attention.

"Give it up Messer!" Vince yelled as he reached the fence "No ones gonna come help a little runt like you!"

"Fuck you Vince!" Danny shouted back hoarsely, "You and your pet gorilla!"

He kicked another car and another wave of dizziness staggered him, landing him on his butt.

He sat for a second, panting, wondering if he three cars at the far end of the lot was enough and if he could just lay down here and sleep for a while. The heavy feeling in his head was growing and he was having a hard time keeping track of what he was actually supposed to be doing. He frowned at his own hands and struggled to his feet slowly. Something in his jeans pockets dug into his leg as he stood, and he dug his hand into his pocket. He looked back to see that Vince and Chuck had cleared the fence and where moving toward him slowly.

Danny remembered why he was in the lot and kicked the car nearest to him, running away as he pulled his hand free of his pocket. What he held in his hand almost made him stop dead in his tracks. It was a cell phone. It was ultra thin, compact…Jackson had given it to Danny a minute before he died. It was an emergency replacement, one with specially adjusted range so he could use it across long distances. He had been given it because he was going to a safe house and…he couldn't remember the rest but it wasn't important, he had a _phone_.

He wanted to cry again, with joy this time. He ran toward the other end of the lot, where the majority of the cars where parked, flipping the phone open and turning it on. It beeped as it started up and he crouched amongst the denser collection of cars. He scrolled through the numbers in the phone, almost laughing out loud as he found Mac's, Aiden's, Stella's and Flack's cell phone numbers. He said a prayer of thanks to Jackson Mayhew for thinking ahead and pressed dial on Flacks number.

Don Flack rubbed at his eyes as he scoured the files, trying to find anything to add to what he already knew. He had found evidence that Vince could have access to a boat as he and a friend who had since been sent to prison for drug trafficking, had purchased a boat together six years ago. But Flack couldn't find out where the boat should be docked. There was no record of it having a slip at any of the commercial docks around the city, which could mean that it was illegally docked somewhere, but the question was where.

Flack slipped his wounded arm out of the sling and slowly rotated his shoulder, sighing with relief as the joint popped and the ache that had been slowly building began to recede. He sat up straight in his stool feeling his spine pop and he allowed himself a smile at how much better he felt for moving around.

His eyes itched and he closed them, gently rubbing the lids to try and moisten his dry eyes. He looked around the lab. It was too uncomfortable, and he wanted to get some coffee, so he gathered up the files and headed for the break room, setting the files on the table as he began to brew a strong pot of coffee, adding enough coffee to the water that he would be able to chew the finished product. He stood over the table, gazing down at the sheets of paper, willing them to tell him something he could use. Nothing jumped out at him and as he turned to raid the fridge, his cell phone rang at his hip, making him jump and grab at it to kill the shrill tone.

"Flack" he said wearily by way of greeting.

"Flack! It's me man, it's Danny" Danny Messer hissed into the phone.

"Danny!" Flack yelled, running out into the main labs to find Mac "Danny where are you man!" He asked.

"I'm near the water, the docks, there's a tanker, I set off the alarms, I'm hurt Flack" Danny babbled. His voice sounded strained, and Flack could hear his teeth clacking together as he spoke.

"Danny, where's Vince, and the big guy, are they nearby?" Flack asked, spotting Mac hunched over a microscope in one of the glass walled labs.

"They're right behind me Flack, I'm in trouble, my head…I'm cold" The young CSI replied.

Flack banged on the window of the lab and pointed at his phone as Mac looked up at him. "Danny, please, look around you, you have to give me something I can go on okay, so I can come and find you!" He said firmly.

There was a long pause during which Mac emerged from the lab, frowning. "It's Danny" Flack explained and Mac immediately stepped closer, his face a picture of concern.

"Danny? DANNY!" Flack barked into the phone. He heard a gasp on the other end.

"I…sorry Flack…I'm having kind of a hard time staying with it…uh, I can't see anything like a landmark, but the tanker…it's Italian, it's called the 'Buon Segno', ha, the Good Sign" He paused, coughing wretchedly down the phone.

Flack squeezed his hand into a fist, feeling his knuckles pop "Christ Danny, what'd they do to you?" Flack hissed angrily into the phone.

"Believe it or not, nothing yet, we got out of the car and I ran like the wind for civilisation, there's a busy dock here. Not that any one working her is concerned enough to check on their cars when the alarm goes off" Danny rasped "I hope they get all smashed up, serve these jag offs right for not paying attention. And savin my ass" he added a little sadly.

"Don't worry man, we'll find you" Flack reassured his friend.

"Look, I don't wanna be melodramatic Don but uh, I'm not feeling so hot…my head is kinda comin and goin…I'm coughin up…a lot more blood than what I'd call safe..And I'm freezing my ass off" Danny told the detective.

Mac took the phone as Flack ducked into a nearby lab and began explaining to a tech that he wanted to track an Italian tanker docked in New York.

"Danny, it's Mac, hang on okay, Flack's just trying to find the tanker now, we'll get to you as soon as we can"

"We were driving for over an hour Mac" Danny informed him.

"Where are you right now?" Mac asked.

"As I speak to you I'm crouched down between two cars. The snow is real bad now, I think I might be able to get into the warehouse if I stay low" Danny told his boss.

"Be careful Danny, we know they're willing to kill" Mac warned him.

"Yeah Mac, I kinda noticed" Danny snapped a little impatiently.

Mac tried to think of something to say to comfort the young CSI, but nothing seemed appropriate given the situation.

"Okay, I'm movin now" Danny whispered.

Mac stared at Don Flack as he hovered over the nervous lab tech's shoulder. The tech hit a button and Flack turned to the printer, grabbing the sheet of paper as it was ejected and jogging back over to Mac.

He handed Mac the sheet. "Its on the other side of town, if we leave now, I can get us there in forty minutes." Flack told him as he swept past.

He yelled out loud for Aiden and Stella who came as soon as they where called. "What the hell!" Aiden asked as Flack ran by them.

"We found him" Mac told them, still holding the phone to his ear.

He could hear heavy breathing on Danny's end as Danny moved between the cars.

"I'm gonna…go inside" Danny panted "See if there's anyone around"

"Alright Danny, we're coming now, we'll be there" Mac said.

"Hey, take your time, I'm fine" Danny joked and Mac shot Stella a dark look as they climbed into the jeep.

"What's wrong?" she asked him.

"Danny told us that his head was troubling him, now he's kinda swinging in and out of it. The doctor in he hospital made a lot of noise about Danny takin it easy and coming back in if he even thought abut his head feeling wired, the only reason he let him leave today was because we convinced him Danny wasn't safe. Plus Danny threatened to annoy the hell out of everybody if he was made to stay" Mac told her.

"We gotta get to him" he stated.

"We're gonna" Flack announced as he stamped on the accelerator.

Danny cursed quietly as he stepped into the warehouse through a small side door. There where some massive containers on the far side of the warehouse. He could just make out the sounds of voices coming from the other side and realised that the people working at the dock must have been on the far side of the containers. If he could get through them he would be okay. But he was having trouble walking straight now, and he needed to lean on the wall to stay upright. If he did that all the way around Vince and Chuck would be on him in seconds. The sudden flurry of snow had helped him escape them in the lot, but they wouldn't stay out there forever. But if he had to walk out across the open space, he want sure he would be able to keep his balance well enough to make it across. "Uh Mac, I may have hit a snag" he told the phone.

"How so?"

Danny explained about the wall, his bad balance, the proximity of Vince and Chuck.

"Can't you hide yourself in the side of the space you're in?" Mac asked him.

"No, its almost open space out here" Danny said. He was hit by another wave of dizziness and nausea and placed his hand over the speaker of the phone as he swallowed the urge to be sick. He heard a noise and realised that it was his own voice, that he was making high pained noises as he stood hunched by the door.

He could hear Mac shouting through the phone and he raised it to his ear again. "I'm here. I just felt a little sick is all, didn't wanna puke on the phone" he half lied.

He pushed off the wall and took a few shaky steps forward, pausing to see what happened. He wobbled a little on his feet, but managed to stay upright and walked farther forward. "Mac I think I can make it" he whispered into the phone.

He walked for ward, moving as fast as he dared. Mac talked to him on the phone, constantly updating him on how close they where. "Ten more minutes Danny, hold on" he was saying.

Danny looked around and realised he was over halfway cross the room. As he looked up he saw someone step out from between the containers and his knees gave out. "Sir, my name is Danny Messer, I'm with the police, I need your help, there are men following me who will kill me if you don't get me out of here" Danny had to force his voice to be calm as the man hurried over, concern etched over his weather beaten features.

"Holy shit kid what the hell happened! Your okay now, you're safe, come one with me I'll call an ambulance or something" The guy said, taking Danny gently by the arm and helping him to his feet. He carried a baseball bat, an old wooden slugger in one hand and wore a fluorescent jacket with the word security written over the breast pocket.

"Thank you" Danny started to whisper.

"Shh, come one now, lets get you out of here" the elderly man started to turn, pulling Danny with him.

The mans eye disappeared in a cloud of red a millisecond before the gun shot rang out and he fell to the floor, dragging Danny down with him.

"Shit! No, shit, Vince why'd you do that you didn't have to do that" Danny screamed as Vince strode forward into the open space with Chuck trailing close behind

"See what you do Messer? Everyone you go near gets hurt, you're just bad luck" Vince smiled.

Danny stared down at the dead man who had tried to help him. His remaining eye was fixed on some point past Danny's shoulder. His blood was already spreading in a pool, fanning around his head like a demented halo.

"What the fuck Vince, he didn't even see you, you coulda let him walk away" He growled, biting back tears of frustration. "He never did nothin', he was just some old guy. What the fuck is wrong with you Vince? What's always been wrong with you, why are you such a psycho fuck!" he yelled.

"What, did you expect me to see this guy helping you and have a change of heart? To learn, I don't know, a valuable lesson, to discover that under my hard outer shell I'm really all gooey and kind inside?" Vince scoffed disdainfully. "Don't you remember what we learned growin' up Danny? About people?"

"People are bastard coated bastards with a bastard filling" Danny quoted from memory, his hoarse voice betraying his exhaustion. "You know what else Vince?" he asked, feeling light headed again.

"What Messer?" Vince crouched across from the kneeling Danny.

Danny looked from the dead mans face into Vince's eyes. He smiled, a bright enough smile that Vince drew back just a little, disconcerted by Danny's apparent happiness.

"Your mother is a whore" Danny said laughing hysterically "and your father owes her money"

Vince smiled grimly and reached across, grabbing Danny by the back of the neck and pulling him close. "You'll regret that Messer, right up until the moment I put a knife in you, you will regret ever having crossed me"

"Why do you hate me so much?" Danny hissed into Vince's face from inches away.

"Why? I just don't like your face Messer" Vince replied.

"Your mother never seemed to mind, of course she was so desperate for money who was she to complain really?" Danny laughed again "Bitch woulda done Quasimodo, he paid her enough".

Vince shoved Danny backwards, swinging with a casual right hook that hit exactly the wrong pat of Danny's head. He dint even cry out as he half slumped to the side, reaching out with his good hands to catch himself.

"You know what? I'm so sick of you that I don't even want to mess with you anymore. I'm just gonna do you now. Its not as if you're gonna get out of this alive, look at you, coughin up blood all over yourself. Plus I'm pretty sure you have permanent brain damage. I'd be putting you out of your misery really" he said, standing up straight and raising his gun.

He looked down at Danny. The smaller man was shivering, visibly so. His skin was almost grey, one side of his face was a mask of blood, his blonde hair dyed red, his blue eyes where bright, almost feverish. With every breath, more blood misted onto his half blue lips. Danny looked like death personified. Vince shook his head, tutting in disgust and smirked at Chuck, taking his eyes off Danny for a second.

Danny rose up like an avenging angel, the dead guards baseball bat gripped in his hands. He swung it at Vince's wrist, hearing the bone crack as the bat connected. Vince shrieked, the gun dropping form his hand as he staggered backwards. Danny dropped into a batters crouch as Chuck ran at him, swing again, visualising the bat ending its arc on the other side of Chuck's head. Chuck turned at the last second ant the Bat only caught him a glancing blow but he went down.

Danny span back to see Vince pick up the gun with his good hand and raise it to aim at Danny's chest. He was out of reach for the bat. Danny froze, realising that there was absolutely no possible escape. And then a bullet hit Vince in the shoulder, one in the chest and another hit him square in the neck and he slumped to the floor. Danny looked over to the containers. Don Flack, Stella Bonasera, Mac Taylor and Aiden Burns stood in a half circle, their guns all trained firmly on Vince.

Whatever adrenalin-fuelled rush had given Danny the strength to wield the bat failed him, and as paramedics streamed into the warehouse, having followed Flacks car, he dropped to the floor.

Immediately the other group was at his side. He lay on his back gaping in air but his chest was painfully tight. He coughed up more blood and stared at the ceiling as the pain and pressure that head been building in his head reached a critical level and darkness rolled over him in a wave that he almost welcomed.

As Mac watched, Danny's entire body seized. His back arched as his hands clawed at the ground and his eyes rolled back in his head. Danny didn't seem to be able to breath and the paramedics rushed over to him as Flack and the CSI's cried out for help in unison.

"He's seizing!" One of the medics yelled, kneeling beside Danny and pulling something from his kit.

Aiden pressed one hand to her mouth, squeezing hard enough that she knew she would be bruised later. Stella and Mac stood and stepped back as the second medic ran in with the stretcher. Flack stood in front of Aiden, using his body to block her view as Danny's clawing fingers began to bleed.

She stepped around him as one of the medics stuck a needle in Danny's arm.

"What are you doing?" she asked, he voice thick with tears "Help him!"

Tia sat beside the bed, her long leg stretched out in front of her as she watched Danny's chest rise and fall slowly in time with the hiss of the ventilator.

There was a small couch in the room in which Aiden and Stella dozed. Mac, Murphy and Don had been sent to get food for everyone who had moved into Danny's room to keep vigil over the unconscious CSI.

The doctor had told Mac and Mac had old them all about Danny's condition. Apparently it had been hours before he had stopped having seizures. A CAT scan had revealed massive swelling and bleeding on Danny's brain. The had given in medicine to counteract the ill effects if this, to stop the bleeding and swelling, but it was a case of waiting to see if it would be successful. Danny had had punctured lungs, which he had needed surgery to repair. The doctor had used the words 'potential permanent brain damage' in a single sentence and Flack had needed to be physically restrained form going to Sylvester's hospital room and doing something permanent to him.

Tia had gotten to the hospital in record time upon hearing that Danny had been brought in and any attempts by a dispatcher to send calls Tia's way had been quietly but viciously dismissed. She had been sitting at Danny's bedside almost constantly for four days now. She had left him once, on the second day to go to her own apartment to pack a bag with fresh clothes and under wear for herself. She had keys to Danny's apartment so she had let herself in to put a bag together for him as well, packing some of his belongings, books and a sketch pad she knew he liked as well, in case he had to stay a while after he woke up. Tia had no doubt what so ever that he would wake up, and told any one who tried to offer condolences so.

She stood, towering over the bed and her fallen friend. Sitting on the bed she reached out and swept the same forelock of hair off his forehead that she had done almost a week ago. She remembered he had woken up immediately after and watched him expectantly. He didn't wake up. "Come on blondie, we've missed out on so many runs…you don't wake up now and me and you are gonna get all kinds of fat" she spoke quietly "And you've met my momma so you know what I'll look like with a big giant ass and I think its safe to say that it aint pretty" she chuckled.

"okay, open your eyes or I'll crush you with the giant ass I'm gonna get!" she picked up his hand from where it lay on the bed, holding it in her own. " Danny, I will not lose my best friend to some skinny ass Italian guy who was stupid enough to let you near a baseball bat, I'm just not. If I have to call my mother in here to get your lazy ass out of bed, I wont hesitate to do it and you know it" she said, her voice growing louder.

Stella came to stand on the other side of the bed, gazing down at the younger CSI. She didn't quite have Tia's unwavering faith, she had been there when Danny seized so strongly that he broke three of his own fingers and cut the ends of his fingers so deeply he needed stitches in every one.

She touched his other wrist, re set in a new cast after the first one had to be cut off to put an IV drip in his arm.

"Tia, why don't you go home and sleep, we can watch him" she told the willowy cop.

"Because I want to be here when he wakes up" Tia said softly, her eyes never leaving Danny's face.

"Tia…the doctor said that he might _not _ wake up" Stella started to say, hating to admit it, but Tia raised a hand to silence her.

Stella looked down at Danny and felt her eyes grow hot with tears as she saw him blinking groggily awake, the hand Tia held closing around hers as he fought to concentrate.

"See "Tia told Stella as Danny's eyes began to clear "I told you"

And that, as they say, is that. Thanks for all the reviews and support, they've been a great help. If u want me to do a sequel, do more with Tia then le me know because I would love to write it if I knew people would read it it.

Thanks again, loves and hugs, noodlepie.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


	5. Lily

Okay, this is the follow up. It starts about 6 weeks after the end of Ice in My Veins, Danny's back in work, he's recovered and is back at work I own none of the CBS properties, but I own anyone else because I conjured them from my imagination, Tia will be in it and I will be bringing in some new characters who I've been thinking of. Oh, this is set after the episode 'Tanglewood' but before any of the later episodes where Danny has really gotten in trouble. **Warning, warning- the violence and swearing will be worse, and there will be mention of violence towards children and sexual abuse toward children this will not be for the faint hearted**. I will do my best to handle this sensitively and I apologise for any upset caused. This story is inspired by a documentary I recently saw which followed up a very famous kidnapping case. It was very upsetting to watch and as a result I feel compelled to write this, I am dedicating this to my Sister who agrees with my opinions on what should be done to people who hurt children and to the millions of children who vanish around the world every week. We can only hope that they do not suffer.

Detective Danny Messer, CSI of New York City, sat opposite the crying woman, wishing he could say something, anything to help her calm down. She was weeping silently, her hands over her face as she shook.

"Miss Carter, what was Lily wearing when she and the nanny left for the park?" He asked the woman, his voice gentle and low.

"Um…a dress her favourite Princess Mia dress…it's purple and gold, and she had her white shoes on…with tights, and a thick jacket, a light blue one, with a hood, for the bad weather" The woman half whispered.

"Princess Mia?" Danny made it a question.

"It's a clothing line for little girls…it specialises in age appropriate clothes, none of that grown up stuff…I don't want my five year old dressed up like some slutty pop star, I buy all her clothes there, it's all…appropriate outfits, nothing that could…oh god, that could draw the wrong kind of attention" She said, her voice breaking.

"And what happened after the nanny came back here?" Danny asked, making a note to check out the store.

"She was…embarrassed, she said she had lost sight of Lily in the park and that she had assumed that she must have come back here because she had been feeling ill this morning…but Lily isn't that kind of kid, she's too timid, she would never try and walk back here on her own, never! I told Alicia that and we went back to the park to see if Lily was there…I thought she would just be waiting for us there, I've told her that if she gets lost she should stay where she is and I'll come find her. I said she should only move if she sees a policeman, and she should ask the policeman for help" the distraught woman began to sob "When she wasn't there I began running around looking for her but no one had seen her, she was gone!"

She reached over and gripped Danny's hand painfully tight "How can a little girl just vanish, I don't understand, where could she have gone!" she asked.

Danny didn't remove his hand from hers, despite the fact that she was squeezing his broken fingers on the edge of the plastic splint he wore. 6 weeks previously, Danny had been attacked at a crime sceneby an old enemy and had very nearly died of his injuries. One of the injuries had been a badly broken arm and broken fingers, and the plaster cast on his arm had only been removed two days ago. Now he wore a plastic splint but his fingers where still taped and his whole arm from finger tip to elbow was still bruised enough that the woman's grip hurt.

"Ma'am, its possible that one of your friends, or one of Lily's friends mom's took Lily home with them and just…forgot to call you!" he said, hoping he sounded sincere. "Just relax, we're gonna look for her but-"he remembered what he'd been trained to say in these situations, even thought he didn't believe word of it. " These situations always turn out to be some big misunderstanding, she's probably sittin in a friends house eating cookies" He smiled areassuring but sympathetic smile.

"Do you really think so?" she looked up, the hope in her eyes like a light.

Danny bit his own lip, hating the thoughts running through his head. He felt like a liar. "We'll see what turns up" he said, gently pulling his hand away.

He stood up, nodding to the uniformed officers who would be sitting with the woman while she waited for her own mother to turn up.

The woman walked over and sat down as Danny headed over to where the nanny sat near the open door, her arms wrapped around herself.

"Christine ,right?" he asked as he sat opposite her.

"Um, yeah" the woman replied.

"Can you tell me what happened, how you came to realise Lily was missing?" He didn't want to say 'how you lost Lily', because he suspected some one had taken the girl, and that the nanny felt guilty enough as it was.

"She was playing with some kids right near me, from the neighbourhood you know? And I was talking to Keisha, another nanny and Lily was coming back and forth to get her dolls and to get a snack and a drink…she was fine, and as sweet as ever, and then they all went to the climbing frame…then she was gone…I was watching her, I was! Keisha was talking and I was listening but I had my eyes on Lily and she climbed up to the slide on the frame, and, the slide comes down on the opposite side, I figured she was using the ladder on that side to climb back up so I didn't go around to see her…We could see all the other kids, and the park is enclosed, there's a guard and everything…I never thought for a second that someone might be able walk away with her, then when I couldn't find her I just assumed she had gotten out somehow and gone home, she was ill this morning any way, I guess I figured she had wanted her mom" Christine looked over at him.

"When you came home to see if she was here, what happened then?" Danny asked, writing everything down shorthand.

"Ella, miss Carter, she told me that Lily would never try to walk home on her own, and I said 'so she's not here?' and then we both ran back to the park thinking she would just be sitting there waiting for us but she wasn't there, so we looked all over, we asked if anyone had seen her but no one remembered seeing her, not one person! It was like she only existed for me and Ella. What do you think could have happened?" she met his eyes.

"It's likely one of her friends mothers or nanny's took her home, maybe after you left, thinking she's gotten lost" Danny repeated what he'd said to the mother. " you'll probably hear from her very soon"

The nanny looked up at him, and he could see in her eyes that she wasn't going to latch onto the false hope the way the mother had.

He held her gaze and she broke first, looking down at her own hands and sighing wearily.

"We will do every thing in our power to bring her back safely" he told her, keeping his voice low so that Ella, the mother, didn't over hear.

"Be honest with me…do you really think she's okay somewhere with some friend?" Christine looked up at him, her eyes clear and steely.

"Honestly? I think it's possible she's somewhere safe" Danny answered, respecting the woman's no nonsense approach.

"But?" she made it a question.

"But…I've been a cop for a long time and I know the statistics and I don't like lying to people so the truth is…I honestly don't know what I think. I know enough to be a pessimist and an optimist" he explained.

"Thank you for being honest" Christine said.

"Just don't say this to her" Danny nodded towards Ella "I told her what I first told you, and who knows, maybe if she prays hard enough it'll come true" he half shrugged.

Christine nodded "Some how I get the feeling that talking to me isn't going to rate high on Ella's list of priorities" she shook her head "how could I be so stupid!"

"It's not your fault" Danny told her.

* * *

That had been two days ago. Now Danny, and the recently transferred British detective Nicole De Rossi, stood over the tiny corpse of Lily Carter. She was flat on her back, her pale hands curled into fists, her face a gentle frown, as if she was having an unpleasant dream. Her dress was slightly soiled, but undamaged, her hair was tangled as if she had slept on it without combing it. Nicole tutted and shook her head. "What's wrong with people?" She asked no body in particular. Her accent wasn't the Shakespearean posh that Brits on TV and Movie's spoke with, there was a trace of a regional accent. Danny knew from their work together in the last two days that she was from Liverpool, home of the Beatles.

Nicole had glossy, dark brown hair and greyish blue eyes framed by long lashes. She had faint freckles scattered over her skin, making her look much younger than she really was. She wore black pants and boots with a soft purple polo neck sweater and a black jacket reaching to her knees, with a beret like woolly hat as her protection against the rain that had been falling all day. Lily had been found in an underground parking garage so the rain hadn't compromised the scene.

Danny wore his usual beige suit under a rain coat that was basically the male version of Nicole's. He had a hat on too, doctors orders due to the severe hypothermia he had suffered 6 weeks earlier. He nodded in agreement with Nicole's question, crouching down beside the tiny body.

He already had his gloves on, and Aiden had taken all the photo's of the body she thought she needed and was somewhere else in the lot photographing suspicious tire tracks.

Danny reached out and pushed a strand of blonde hair away from Lily's face. He noticed odd colouring around her nose and lips that seemed to indicate her having been smothered. Her wrists where bruised, thin purple bracelets running around her skin, probably from being tied up or restrained, and her elbows where grazed. Danny wondered if she had fallen before or after she was abducted.

Dr Sheldon Hawkes stood on the other side of the body from Danny and Nicole, writing notes in his clip board pad. "I guess you noticed all the redness around her mouth…I can't be sure without a full autopsy but I would say smothering is our M.O." He told Danny.

Danny nodded, using his tweezers to collect a stray strands of hair from off the girls dress. "Doc when you get her back to he lab, see if she has somethin' in her hands, rigor has 'em closed pretty tight but I think she's holdin something. But be gentle about it ya know?" He looked up at the reclusive M.E who nodded sadly.

"Where's your partner?" Danny turned to Nicole, who motioned to where Mike Keenan stood talking to the two uniforms who had arrived first at the scene, Tia Adewele and Murphy Rielly, two of the best uniforms in the city.

Tia, who happened to be one of Danny's best friends saw him looking at them and nodded by way of greeting.

Danny returned the nod as he began to gather his kit together. Mike said something to the uniforms and they moved away, heading for the entrance to the lot.

Mike walked over to where Nicole and Danny stood, studiously avoiding looking at Lily's corpse.

"They said they got the call from a security attendent when he opened up this mornin', the building above us is closed until six am, but the guard for this lot gets here at five to make sure nobody had snuck in, apparently couples sneak in here a lot, what with it being so romantic and all" Mike raised an eyebrow as he motioned around the grey on grey on grey parking lot.

"Wow, how sweet" Nicole deadpanned, rolling her eyes.

"He said she was lying right here when he found her, like she'd been posed under this particular light" Mike pointed up at the brightest light in the lot "Right in the centre…this guys tryna make a statement" he finished.

Danny nodded "Definitely, even lying like she is, he had to have posed her like she was sleeping"

Mike nodded. He had dark brown hair and high cheek bones with a slightly pouting mouth, and wore most of a suit, with a leather jacket instead of a suit jacket to match his charcoal pants. He always wore the jacket, no matter what the weather.

"Well, Doc, you take her back to the morgue, wait on her mother I.Ding her before you do your thing, I'm gonna get this stuff back to the lab and see about getting us some leads to follow" Danny told everyone. "Hey, Aiden!" He yelled as loud as he could.

"What!" came the reply.

"Me and the Doc and Nicole and Mike are going back to the lab, Tia and Murphy are staying here with you okay!" he called out.

"Fine, I won't be much longer" she yelled back.

Two paramedics stepped forward and helped Hawkes to move Lilys body into a body bag, then onto a stretcher. They placed her in the back of the ambulance and Danny headed for his jeep, Nicole and Mike heading for their car.

Danny called Ella Carter as soon as he got to the lab, telling her she needed to come down to the station house. As soon as he said it, he heard her begin to sob down the phone, asking him if they had found Lily. He couldn't tell her over the phone, so he just repeated his request.

As he clipped his phone shut, Mac Taylor, Danny's boss walked over to where Danny stood, leaning against the wall.

"Everything okay Danny?" the ex marine asked as Danny sighed heavily.

"We found Lily Carter, dead, I just had to ask her mother to come down to the station and when she gets here I'm gonna have to tell her we found a body that we're 99 percent sure is her daughters, but we need her to I.D it" he sighed again "We shouldn't have to ask parents to I.D five year olds, its just not right" he shrugged.

Mac regarded Danny. The younger detective had bags under his eyes, he looked pale, and drawn. The energy that usually poured off him in waves was depleted.

"How much sleep have you had?" Mac asked Danny as Danny rubbed his un splinted hand over his face.

"No where near enough" Danny admitted "But don't tell me to go home and rest Mac, just don't, I'm not gonna sleep while the guy who killed this little girl is still out there, I'm not, and Mac, no offence but if you try and order me off this case I'll knock you on your ass, I swear to God!" Danny looked Mac dead in the eye but he was halfsmiling as he said it.

Mac grinned back, putting a fatherly hand on Danny's shoulder "I wont order you off the case Danny but I will _advise_ you to…maybe ask Aiden or Stella or…oh hey, even me, to take some of the weight off your shoulders? Because, believe it or not, we can do that!" Mac told him.

Danny pulled a mock surprised face "No, really!…thanks Mac but I'm fine, I am, now that we have her body, we have trace evidence, and I'm willing to bet this shit head's a repeat offender" Danny explained. " Actually, I meant to ask Hawkes…"he trailed off, turning away.

* * *

Hawkes carefully cut away Lily's dress, pulling a sheet over her almost as soon as he pulled the dress away. He put the dress in a paper evidence bag and labelled it for Danny. He noticed as he pulled the sheet up to her shoulders that her under wear was missing. He carefully moved her hair back, leaving her face clear and open. He felt like he should comb her hair, wash her face maybe, but he knew not to change anything until Danny gave the all clear. He wheeled the stretcher she lay on to the viewing room, trying to shake the feeling that he should put another sheet underneath her so that she wasn't cold lying on the metal bed.

The curtain was still pulled so Hawkes went to a small side door and opened it just enough to see Danny standing with Ella Carter. Danny glanced over and saw Hawkes, who nodded.

Danny turned back to Ella and said "Okay, you just tell me when you're ready and I'll pull back the curtain" he said softly.

Sheldon ducked back inside the door way and waited. A second later he heard a muffled 'ok' from the other side of the glass and the curtains slid apart.

There was a moment of silence, a longer moment than Sheldon has heard before. He wondered if they could have been wrong, if this little girl wasn't Lily Carter, then Ella screamed, a wordless, primal scream of pure anguish. Sheldon squeezed his eyes shut waiting for the scream to end but it went on and on, forming into words. "My baby! Oh my God my baby!" she shrieked, sobbing as she banged on the window.

Sheldon heard Danny trying to comfort the woman, yelling to be heard over her screams. The banging on the glass ceased and Sheldon heard the screaming fade into sobs.

He looked out of the door again and saw Danny sitting with the woman on the small couch, holding her as she cried, her head buried into his shoulder. He was staring straight ahead, an angry look on his face and Sheldon could almost hear the plots Danny was coming up with, ways to hurt the person who had hurt Lily.

An older woman stepped into view, took one look through the glass, then gripped Ella's shoulder. She looked enough like Ella that Sheldon figured her for the woman's mother. Ella turned to hug her mother and Danny used the opportunity to stand and pull the rope to close the curtains. He whispered something into the older woman's ear. The woman nodded and Danny handed her a folded sheet of paper. He stood aside while the woman sat beside her daughter and whispered in the younger woman's ear. Ella nodded and took the pen Danny offered her, signing the sheet of paper. Danny thanked her, taking the paper and stepped away quietly, heading for Sheldon.

The men stepped through the door, pulling it firmly shut. Even with it fully closed, they spoke in low, quiet voices. "I got the permission for an autopsy" Danny handed Hawkes the sheet "God that was bad, that poor woman…get this done quick Doc? I wanna catch this guy as quickly as I'm humanely able!"

Sheldon nodded. "Help me get her back to the morgue, I got her dress waiting there for you to take" Sheldon explained.

They moved the gurney back to the morgue, almost silently. When they reached the cooled room, Sheldon turned to Danny.

"So, any preliminary findings?" Danny asked.

"When I removed her dress I noticed her panties where gone" Sheldon told Danny.

Danny looked away, glaring at a spot on the opposite wall, chewing his lip angrily. He clenched his fist so tight that even Hawkes heard the joints pop and crack.

"Any out ward signs of rape?" Danny asked, his voice dangerously calm.

"I still have to examine her but I didn't see any bruises on her thigh's" Sheldon explained "but like I said, I still have to examine her"

Danny nodded, that tense nod he did when he was pissed off and wouldn't look at any one in case they became a target for his anger.

"Look Danny, you're exhausted, I'm probably gonna be here a while, and your evidence is still being processed, why don't you go get some sleep, in the faculty lounge or something? I'll page you when I have something" Sheldon said and Danny nodded, the tension draining out of him like water out of a glass.

"Yeah, I'll…I need sleep" he nodded.

He looked back down at Lily and shook his head. "We'll find him angel" he murmured to her, shaking his head again and turning away, he picked up he bag containing her dress he walked out of the morgue.

* * *

Stella Bonasera was examining Lily's dress, scouring the tiny gown with a large magnifying glass, her tweezers poised. She was three quarters of the way down having started at the collar and so far she had collected more hairs like the ones Danny had found, and some fibres that she couldn't really explain, but she thought might come from a carpet. She had also scraped away some kind of dirt off the part of the dress that she figured would be level with Lily's knees when she wore it, and was wondering if it was dirt from the play ground where the child had vanished, or from somewhere else. Had Lily fallen trying to escape?

"How goes it?" Aiden Burns asked as she carried a digital camera into the lab.

"Well the perp wasn't neat, this dress is covered in fibre's and hair's, but nothing unique, even the hair is you're basic non descript brown" Stella told the younger CSI.

"No roots attached?" Aiden asked, setting her camera down next to the computer.

"Yeah but they look kinda weird to me…we'll just have to see what Jane can do with them" Stella said, plucking another, larger fibre from the dress.

It looked like leather, white or cream "Ooh, maybe car interior?" she held the fibre up to the light.

Aiden looked over and nodded "Yeah, or off've a piece of furniture…either way it's a big enough piece that it'll be pretty hard to miss when we find this guys apartment or car"

"Yep" Stella nodded as she bagged the shred.

She returned to the dress but there was nothing new to find so she folded it carefully and put it back in the paper bag.

Aiden was sitting on a stool in front of the computer, running a tire track identification program. She had two sheets of paper, one on either side of her and was making notes of the cars that matched the tread, and ticking them off a list of cars that routinely used the lot, given to her by the security guard.

"Any luck with the treads?" Stella asked

"I've narrowed it down to three vehicles. We lucked out in that of the three tracks that don't fit, one of them is from a motorbike, and the other two sets of tracks are from pretty unique tires. You only find them on certain kinds of cars, none of which use that parking lot, but all together that's still 1500 cars in the city" she sighed.

"Well get the addresses of those 1500 cars and we'll play our own version of twenty questions, me and Danny did it on that case we had with the bike messenger" Stella told her.

"Huh?" Aiden frowned at her.

"We'll take a" Stella looked at her watch "short lunch break while we wait for the trace to come back and for Jane to work a miracle on these hairs, then when we know what the mud and fibres and everything come from we can out it into context, use it eliminate all of the addresses except the likely ones" Stella explained.

"Oh right" Aiden nodded.

They gathered up the bags Stella had filled and dropped the evidence in the appropriate labs before heading to the lounge. The techs told them that the initial evidence from the scene would be ready soon, so they hurried to the lounge to eat before they got beeped.

When they got there, they saw that they wheren't the only ones who had decided to take a break.

Nicole and Mike sat on one side of the table, reading through a file as they ate salads. Don Flack had his head in his hand as he idly flicked through the channels of the television, a half eaten Sub sitting in wrappings in front of him. Mac Taylor was sipping coffee from a mug in one hand, while he scanned the newspaper in his other hand. And Danny, who until this morning had been the only CSI working the case, who had only been home to shower and change clothes for two days straight, was curled up on the couch. Someone had thrown a blanket over him and he was curled up so tight that only the top of his head was visible.

Stella and Aiden both smiled, glad to see Danny finally getting some rest. They each retrieved their lunched from the fridge and settled down to eat.

"Did we ever turn up any witnesses at the park?" Nicole asked quietly, breaking to silence in the room.

"No body came forward even when we appealed, at least no body helpful. We had a few people tell us that they saw Lily at the playground, but all the times match what Christine the Nanny told us. No body remembers seeing her after Christine told us she first noticed her missing, which was at 11 am" Stella said around a mouthful of pasta salad "Which is really weird, I've been examining that dress for hours, it's pretty unique, I mean it's bright enough that you would remember seeing it even if only for a second…but no one can recall seeing her…"

"Didn't the mother say she had on a 'thick light blue jacket'?" Nicole asked "Did we ask if they saw the girl in the purple dress or the girl in the light blue jacket?"

Mike answered for Stella whose mouth was too full. "We asked for both but no body saw nothin'" He shook his head "It doesn't make _any_ sense, kids don't just vanish into thin air then reappear dead" he stated.

"Maybe one of the other kids saw something?" Flack said, hitting the off button on the remote and turning back to face the table.

"We could do that, ask the kids, but most of em are as young or younger than our vic, I don't know how reliable their memories are gonna be" Mike said.

"Have their parents bring them in any way, just in case" Mac said, looking up from the paper "Sometimes kids see more than we realise, and god knows they remember it better"

Everyone nodded in agreement, except Danny who was still asleep.

A chorus of beeps filled the air as each detectives' pager went off. The group all reached for their belts, even Danny who pushed the cover off and sat up slowly, rubbing his eyes with one hand. "Looks like all our evidence is in" Mac stated.

"I was havin' such a bad dream" Danny murmured groggily as he poured himself a cup of coffee "but I couldn't wake up from it…Lily was askin me to help her and I couldn't move, it was like I was stuck in…tar or thick mud…God it was bad…,ugh " He shuddered, taking a long sip at his coffee. He pulled his pager off his belt and squinted at the number, put the pager down, put his glasses back on and looked at the pager again. "Its Hawkes, he's finished the autopsy" he said.

"I'll come with you…Can you three organise having the kids from the park come in? It saves us the time of having to drive to all their individual homes" Mac looked at Mike Nicole and Flack.

They nodded in response and began to quickly finish their lunches. Stella and Aiden put their unfinished food in the fridge and left, heading for the trace lab.

Danny removed his glasses again and ran the tap in the small sink, splashing cold water on his face and patting it dry with a paper towel. Once again he replaced his glasses and pulled on his suit jacket. He finished his coffee and he and Mac walked out, heading for the morgue.

"Hawkes said that the perp took Lily's underwear" Danny said as they walked. "He told me he would check for signs of rape or molestation" Danny's voice was very low and very calm.

Mac eyed the younger man warily. "You're gonna be okay on this right Danny?" he asked, keeping his voice neutral. He knew Danny well enough to b able to read his moods and body language, and right now, Danny was very unhappy.

Danny actually hesitated before he spoke again, considering his answer "Yes. Yeah, I'm gonna be okay, I just, I'm angry at the training!" he said.

Mac frowned "huh?"

"You know, they tell us to be optimistic, to keep the family of the victim optimistic, so we do, and it turns into liars. You should have seen the look in Ella carters eyes the other day when I had to tell her I thought Lily would be fine that she was probably with a friend somewhere. She looked so…hopeful…and today, when she saw the body…I saw something die inside her Mac, and it was my fault. I gave her false hope that I couldn't fulfil, and from now on that woman is never going to be hopeful again, she's never gonna _trust _anyone again because she'll know I lied to her" he ran a hand through his sleep tousled hair, flattening it rather than bother trying to style it at all "I'm not sayin I'm a saint, never told a lie in my life but lying to victims is fucked up, all the way up" he paused and took a deep breath and shook himself, as if ridding himself of his own negative thoughts. "Sorry Mac, venting" he shrugged.

Mac nodded "Don't worry about it, I know what you mean, I hate having to tell the family that the victim 'probably didn't suffer much' when I know that the last few hours of that persons life where probably the worst…I feel like the family deserves to know how much their loved one suffered so that they don't ever start to pity the killer if the lawyer tries to feed the jury some shpeel about…I don't know, a hard childhood. I mean I realise some people have it rough when they're a kid but not everyone who does is automatically a bad person" Mac looked pointedly at Danny who shrugged again and did the stare he often adopted when faced with something he didn't know how to respond to.

"Um, thanks" he said quietly.

Mac shrugged, mimicking Danny.

They reached the morgue and pushed through the doors into the sterile room, wrinkling their noses at the chemical odour that greeted them. "Never get used to that smell" Mac said, and Danny nodded in agreement.

They approached Lily's gurney where Hawkes stood making notes. The sheet had been pulled up to Lily's neck, and where it had been white earlier, it was now stained in the familiar Y pattern.

Lily's feet where depressingly far away from the end of the gurney, and she had that same fixed frown on her face.

"Hey Doc, what's the situation?" Danny asked.

Hawkes set his note pad down and pulled on a fresh set of gloves stepping up to the body, motioning to her as he spoke. "Well our preliminary guess was correct, she was smothered to death. Looking at the bruising around her nose and mouth, I would say our perp cupped his hand like this" he leant forward, cupping one gloved hand the way you would to scoop up water and placed his hand over Lily's nose and mouth. He tightened his hand, closing it over her face, and the shape of his hand fit the bruising almost perfectly "Except your killer had bigger hands than me" he pointed out. "The only thing I'm not sure about was whether her death was an accident or not. He may have been trying to keep her quiet…the reason I say this, is because of this bruise" he leaned across Lily and raised the sheet from the side nearest to Danny and Mac, only lifting enough to reveal her lower chest and stomach and her belly button. There was an angry purple bruise across her stomach, reaching all the way around. Sheldon turned away and came back holding one of the life sized dolls the CSI's used for crime scene reconstruction. This one was the same size as Lily.

Hawkes held the doll in front of his own body, so that 'she' had her back to him. He wrapped one hand around her stomach, placed the other in the cupped position over 'her' nose and mouth. "You see?" he asked. He hoisted the doll as if he where carrying it, moving backwards and forwards in the lab. The dolls weighted legs swung as he moved, the way a child might kick trying to escape. One of the dolls heels hit Hawkes's shin with a solid thud and he winced, handing the doll to Danny.

"That brings me to her injuries, mainly this one" he moved to Lily's feet and raised the sheet again. "Our princess was a kicker" he said, a trace of affection in his voice "God bless if she didn't kick that SOB hard enough she shattered her own heel" he raised her tiny foot just enough that they could see the swelling on her heel.

Hawkes pointed to an X-ray- it showed the shattered bone under the skin. "Good for you kid" Danny muttered.

"She had some bruises on her knees and the palm of her hands, grazes too, like she fell down. There was some kind of mud or foreign matter in some of the grazes so I swabbed it and sent it to trace- it could be from the playground but she might have fallen near the killers home, so just to be sure…"

Mac and Danny nodded in unison. "Tox came back on her blood…there where traces of a mild sedative, over the counter sleeping pill type stuff in her blood, so unless her mama gave her something, it could be how he got her out of the park without her raising a fuss" Hawkes continued ". I heard about a guy in Miami a couple years ago who sprayed liquid roofies onto cotton candy to drug a little girl at one of those, indoor park places? Its popping up all over the place now, they don't just give the kids candy, give em drugged candy…I didn't find any _obvious_ signs of molestation or rape, no bruising or tearing…if he molested her, it wasn't violent. Considering the fact that he kept her underwear then I think it's likely he did molest her. I don't know, maybe this guys a repeat offender and knows how not to leave bruises" Hawkes shrugged helplessly.

"Thanks Sheldon" Ma c smiled at the young M.E.

"Oh, and I managed to get her hands open" Hawkes said suddenly.

He turned back to his small desk and picked up two baggies. One contained a chunk of reddish hair, big enough that who ever it had come off would have a large and noticeable bald patch. The other held a chain and pendant of some kind, in what looked to be cheap, low grade silver.

"And this little angel was scratcher too, I got _a lot _of skin from under her nails" He told them "sent it over to Jane in DNA" he smiled at them both as Mac took the baggies.

"That's great Doc," Danny smiled, genuinely for the first time in what seemed like months "Go Lily go" he looked down at the child. Then he frowned. "One thing bother me though…the bruises on her body and face are from him holding her like this right?" he held the doll the same way Hawkes had. "Why would he need to hold her like this? What was he doing, was he moving her? What if he was tryna take her some where and…got spooked maybe…we should put out a request for anybody who saw any guy with a kid fitting Lily's description around the area where she was found…if nobody comes forward then I don't think this would have been accidental…you hold somebody like this" He squeezed his hand even harder over the dolls face, so that his knuckles turned white "you know you're gonna hurt em…this guys smart enough that he molests her with out leavin a single bruise, then he goes and kills her accidentally? I'm not doubting your genius Doc, but that don't sit with me. She was posed at the scene, under that light like that…I think this had some deeper meaning" Danny told them.

"But why hold her so awkwardly? Mac asked. He took the doll from Danny and laid it on an empty gurney. As he leaned over it he looked back at Lily's body. "Cover her face for me will ya Shel? She doesn't need to see this" he asked.

Hawkes pulled the sheet over Lily's face and joined Danny watching Mac with the doll.

"Okay, we're all agreed that she was molested right?" Mac looked up at them both.

"A beautiful little girl like that, your average paedophiles dream" Danny mused "I hate sayin it but she was molested, there's no doubt in my mind" he finished, Hawkes nodding in agreement.

"Okay, so chances are he took her somewhere with a bed right?" Mac held his hands out motioning to the gurney, as if to say 'this is the bed' "and we know she scratched him and got a hold of that hair and necklace" he stood over the doll "Why hold her so awkwardly? Why not just…" he put his hand over the dolls nose and mouth while it lay flat, pushing down "I mean if he intentionally killed her, why make it so difficult by holding her in that awkward way? The bruising seems to indicate accidental death , there would be no other reason for him to hold her that way" Mac looked to Danny for his response.

Danny thought about it. He licked his bottom lip, biting it, a habitual gesture which Mac recognised as a sign that Danny was concentrating, considering the information he'd been given.

Danny walked back over to Lily and raised the sheet to look at her face, her frowning, troubled face.

"What if…" he started to say. He looked back at her face, then moved to see bruise on her stomach and her broken foot.

"If she kicked him that hard that she shattered her own foot, it would have hurt him wouldn't it. He would have a bruise" Danny stated. "So if your holding your hand over some ones mouth, just to keep 'em quiet, and they kick you _that_ hard, you're gonna let go…or at least loosen your grip, I mean this guys got enough smarts that he got a shy five year girl out of a gated, guarded play ground with out any single person seeing him, he must be smart enough to know when he's suffocating a kid who's struggling against him. Why didn't he let go when she kicked him, why if it was an accident and he went through all that trouble to get her, why not try to resuscitate her? Doc did you find any signs that some one attempted CPR, cracked ribs, bruised chest?"

The M.E shook his head. Danny continued " So why would he leave her…and look at her face, she looks like she fell asleep watching a sad movie or somethin'" he paused "…she saw something. He was showing her somethin', that's why he held her so awkwardly" he picked up the doll, holding it in that first position. He held it close against his body, so that the his mouth was near the dolls ear "Check this out, I'm the perp, I've violated her, now I'm holding her…I'm showing her something bad, something that upsets her, and while she's watching it, she's dying…whatever I'm making her watch, it's the last thing she'll ever see. And I can talk to her like this, tell her… _'you'll never see your mommy again, you're goin straight to hell, I'm killing you and you cant stop me…'"_ he had lowered his voice to a creepy, low rasp, hunched his back over, twisted his face into a sneer " he probably gets half his thrill from killin' her like this. Not to mention, with him this close, she reaches back grabs that chain, that handful of hair, then as she dies, death grip sets in, or maybe he didn't even notice, maybe he got an adrenalin rush from killin her and didn't know she'd damn near scalped him" he explained, standing up straight and sitting the doll on the edge of the gurney.

"Someone pulls out that much of you hair, you notice" Sheldon frowned dubiously.

"Not if you got enough adrenalin pumpin" Danny told him "when I was running away from Vince and his brick wall of a buddy at those docks six weeks ago, I didn't always feel the pain, it was only when I actually stopped, when Mac and everybody got there and took Vince out and I knew I didn't need to run any more, that was when I started really hurtin" Danny held up his splinted wrist briefly.

"Yeah…" Sheldon started to agree, but still sounded uncertain.

"Look its up to you guys what you think happened, I just don't believe a guy smart enough to get this girl out of that park, could be stupid enough to accidentally smother her just cos he panicked" Danny looked around at them both.

Mac nodded "It's a pretty sound argument" he admitted "it makes a lot of sense when you lay it out like that"

Sheldon nodded "I gotta admit, the accident thing didn't feel right to me when I was thinking about it" he said. "Okay so it was intentional…what now?"

"Now you go back over all the cases you've had involving little girls like Lily and see if any of em have the same bruise pattern and M.O, this isn't this guys first time" Mac said.

Hawkes nodded slowly "I keep kids files separate from everybody else's, I'll go through em now and have any I find sent up to you.

Mac and Danny thanked him and left, taking the reconstruction doll with them. They went to one of the layout rooms and found Stella scouring Lily's dress almost manically while Aiden ran the names of the 1500 people who owned the cars with tires that matched the treads found in the lot through the computer, hoping for a hit, maybe a registered sex offender.

"What's up with Stell?" Mac asked as Danny set the doll down on the desk.

"Those hairs that Danny picked up at the scene, and the ones Stella got off've the dress before? They're fake, come of some generic brand wig!" Aiden explained. "We where hopin to get a big fat DNA hit but now, nadda" she told them.

"Well guess how amazing Lily was? She got a handful of the fuckers natural hair, a shit load of his skin under her nails, and his necklace!" Danny told her.

Stella looked up at the baggie of hair. "Lily got that?" she asked, glancing at the doll.

"Yeah, so not only will this guy be scratched up, he'll have big ole bald patch too" Danny replied, feeling better than he had for days. They finally had some concrete evidence, something that could connect Lily to the killer.

He explained to them his theory about how Lily had been killed, using the doll again, and the nodded in agreement.

"Definitely, her body was posed" Aiden stated as Nicole, Mike and Flack walked in.

Danny ran through his theory again for their sake and watched them while they considered it.

"Well what ever her was showing her, probably wasn't in that lot…unless somebody was leaving and he was trying to show that no one was helping her?" Nicole suggested as Mac took the hair samples to the DNA lab.

"Could be…or it could be he killed her somewhere else and leaving her where she was held some kind of…ritual significance, if that's the right word" Mike mused.

"So we need to check out the building above the lot then" Danny said "maybe try to get DNA samples off've people workin there… even just a history of the building…I know that its only four or five years old, but I cant remember what was there before…but where he left he was real specific, I bet you're right, she wasn't just posed, this M.O and that lot, there's definitely a deeper meanin that we're not seein'" he began plucking at one of the Velcro straps on his wrist splint, peeling it back then smoothing it down, over and over again until Nicole leaned over and placed one hand over his.

"Stop it, now" she said with a friendly smile.

"Sorry" Danny said simply, meeting Nicole's eyes and grinning that disarmingly bright, flirtatious grin of his.

She drew back, sitting back on the stool she had gravitated to as soon as she walked into the lab and glanced at Danny, who was rubbing his eyes under his glasses.

As she turned to ask Flack a question, she and everybody else missed Danny looking her way with a half smile, as he rubbed the back of his hand where she had touched him.

"Don, what time did we tell the parents to bring the children in?" Nicole asked.

"Now, give or take…we'll all get beeped when they start arriving" he told her, and as if it had been choreographed all six beepers chirped to life at once, seven including Mac who had just stepped in to the room.

They all headed for the lounge where the families waited nervously. Tia and Murphy stood near them, talking quietly to one another. Danny stood by the two uniforms a Don and Mac explained why they where there.

"Hey little brother, how's the case goin" Tia asked Danny quietly, dipping her head so that she could talk to him with out being noticed.

Tia was 6 feet 8 inches tall, a solid foot taller than Danny, and as black as pitch but some how, if she didn't want to be seen you could be damn sure she wouldn't be seen.

Murphy, Tia's six feet six inch partner moved around to Danny's left ,so that they flanked him, both towering over the blonde haired CSI.

"Well it looks like Lily kicked this S.O.B's ass" he told them "She had kin under her nails, hair in her hands, and she even got a hold o his necklace" he said.

"Good for her" Tia nodded, and Murphy agreed.

"So what's the situation here?" he asked, motioning to the large group of people who where still listening to Mac.

" We cant figure out how the guy got her out of the park…he might have drugged her, but we want to ask the kids who where there that day if they remember seeing anything unusual, any one they didn't recognise" he explained. "We already know he was wearing a wig, so we want to see if anyone remembers a guy with brown hair hanging around Lily"

"That's not gonna be easy" Tia said doubtfully.

"I know, but it's worth a shot…you'd be surprised the thing a kid can remember if you ask them the right questions" he told her.

Mac waved him back over and Danny low fived Tia as he walked to where Mac stood. "This is Danny Messer" Mac told the group, "That's Stella Bonasera, Aiden Burns" he pointed the detectives out s he spoke their names "That's Nicole De Rossi, Mike Keenan and Don Flack, as I've said, I'm Mac Taylor. We're going to break you guys up and talk to you all individually. I realise a lot of you have other places you need to be, so we'll make this as quick as possible, I also know you all want to help us find who did this to Lily. If all of the parents will fill out and sign this form, we can get started" he passed out the stacks of forms to the families.

As the parents filled out the forms, the seven detectives scanned the group. The children's ages ranged from three to at least eight or nine. The younger kids stayed close to their parents, obviously nervous in the dimly lit building. The older children where more confident, spreading further from their parents to try and explore. There was no prominent racial group amongst the families, and there was a definite familiarity between all of them. Near the very back of the group, the few nannies and babysitters sat huddled together, Christine amongst them looking drawn and faint. An African American woman sat next to her, one arm wrapped around Christine's shoulders, hugging her close.

Danny walked over to her, crouching in font of her as she looked at him.

"Hi" she whispered, her voice faint and hoarse. It was obvious she had been crying.

"How you doin'? he asked her quietly.

She shook her head. "I can't believe it. I keep thinking your boss is gonna stand up and say 'we found her' and just bring her out and she'll be fine and I can take her back to her mom" her voice was worryingly empty.

"Will all you be able to give statements?" Danny looked around at the other babysitters and nannies.

They nodded, huddling together as if they where afraid of something.

"Is something the matter?" Danny asked, standing.

"We're just a little nervous…something like this happens, it's us who are the first suspects. And then parents start wonderin' about whether or not they feel comfortable leavin' their kids with a nanny. We just feel…a little exposed" one of the women, a stocky, black haired woman said quietly to Danny, stepping away from Christine as she spoke, as if to spare the other woman's feelings.

"Any of you lost your jobs since Lily vanished?" Danny frowned.

"No, but some of us will" The woman told him.

"You sound like you know from experience?" Danny asked.

"I've been a nanny for fifteen years. Four years into a job a while back, a little boy disappeared from out side of school when his nanny was supposed to be pickin him up. The nanny in question, one time in her whole life, her slightly undesirable boyfriend turned up at her work and broke up with her on the step, said something about the kid in her care, about her caring more for the kid than for their relationship…the kid turns up an hour after they reported him missing, he had gone home with a class mate! The family still fired her. She couldn't get hired anywhere after that, not one family in the whole of New York wanted to hire her, even though nothing had even really happened" she shook her head "Can I smoke in here?" she asked.

"'Fraid not" Danny told her "But if you promise not to run away you can go outside for one-its gonna be a while before we get around to you guys, we want to talk to the kids as soon as possible"

"It can wait, I'll enjoy it more if I do" she shrugged and went back to sit with the other nannies.

Danny went back to stand at the front while Mac told him and the other detectives how to break up the groups. They each took a copy of the list of families they would be talking to and each called out the first name on the list. The relevant families came forward and the detectives led them to the interview rooms.

* * *

Okay, wow, this is longer than I thought it would be, I just got really into it.

I'm posting this now and I'll post the next bit as soon as I get it done, which wont be too far away because I'm really enjoying writing this. I know this is a lot slower paced than the original Ice in My Veins but I feel it's appropriate given the content. The next chapter will be faster paced. I haven't really done a lot of follow up from the end of 'Ice'. I had a lot of idea's, mostly set in the hospital while Danny recovered but as I said, I felt compelled to write this.

I plan to do some follow up for Danny's recovery in the next chapter but I'm not one to linger, I like to keep the story moving. If you _really _want follow up let me know, and I'll see if I can fit a flashback or something in!

Read and Review, love and hugs Noodles.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


	6. Danny Boy

Okay, I realise I have already posted the beginning of the continuance to Ice but people have asked for a follow up to Danny in the hospital in the last chapter of Ice so I'm going to just do a quick follow up. Of course I say quick, or short, we all know this'll end up being about a million pages long!

Same disclaimers, I don't own any CSI NY products or characters.

Warnings for language, maybe violence though I doubt I'll include much. I have already written the next piece for Lily's story and I'll post it in a few days, so don't worry, I'm not giving up on that story! This is in a much lighter vein than Lily's story, and its basically all of the gang visiting Danny in their own time while he's in the hospital, and doing their part to make him feel better. I should have posted this first but read this right after Ice in My veins and it'll make sense.

R+R please!

* * *

Danny Messer was half dozing in the hospital bed, his head leaning on Tia Adewele's shoulder as she flicked through the channels on the tiny T.V in the private room. Danny was feverish, not seriously so but enough that he was groggy and occasionally delusional.

"Hush little baby don't say a word…" he murmured, his voice still hoarse from the frequent intubations he had endured two weeks previously.

Despite the fact that he was indoors, and in bed, Danny wore a soft woollen hat, a black beanie style hat that covered almost all of his blonde hair and the fresh stiches in his scalp. His icy blue eyes, framed by long black lashes and heavy, sleepy eyelids where shiny behind the frameless glasses he wore more out of habit than out of any burning desire to see well.

"Shhh little brother" Tia soothed as Danny stirred uncomfortably, muttering incoherently. "Shh Danny, relax" She slid her lanky frame down in the bed so that she lay back on the pillow, level with Danny.

Danny's face was screwed up in pain as his movements jarred his already injured ribs. He made small sounds of pain as his body naturally tried to find a more comfortable position, bringing only more pain.

He tried to raise his right hand but Tia stopped him, holding his arm down on the bed. His fingers had been taped together and his wrist was broken badly enough that his arm was in a cast from knuckle to elbow.

"Danny" Tia said firmly and Danny stopped writhing, sinking back into the pillows exhaustedly.

He opened his eyes which where suddenly clear and focused from the pain and rubbed his forehead with his left hand, biting his lip as he did so. "Tia I'm hot" Danny looked up at his Amazonian friend whose feet now reached a foot further in the beds than Danny's.

"No you're not" she told him, stopping him as ha tried to push off the heavy blankets that covered him. "Your body temperature was stupidly low Danny, the doctor says you have to keep warm, even with having a fever. So quit it" she slapped his hand gently.

"Aw come on Tia, that doctor hates me and you know it" Danny whispered.

" Well you keep calling him mean things" Tia pointed out.

"I called him a commie, once. And I was _totally _out of it!" Danny replied.

He had a point. Not long after he had awoken from the second coma he had been in, in less than a week Danny had acted very differently from normal Apparently this had been the result of the head injury Danny had suffered. Danny had, for three days straight, become the most violent foul mouthed human being Tia had ever known. He had needed to be restrained, tied down in his hospital bed to keep him from punching the Russian Doctor Gellar whenever the man walked into the room.

"Actually, you called him a fucking commie shit bag and told him that if he touched you at all, ever, you would personally cut out his commie heart and eat it. Then you called him a commie some more and spat at him" Tia corrected.

"One time!" Danny shot back.

"One time that hour. Danny you where so mean!" Tia looked at him. "Your language was so bad I couldn't even tell my mama what you said!"

"Oh it wasn't that bad and you know it" Danny grinned.

The door to his room opened and Aiden Burns stepped in, her dark hair swept up into a complicated bun. She wore a skirt suit with knee high boots and smiled as she saw Danny awake and lucid. "How you feelin?" she asked as she walked over to the bed.

"Tia's telling the most horrible lies about me Aiden, make her stop" Danny rolled his head on the pillow so that his head rested on Tia's shoulder once again. He gave Aiden wide eyes and pouted, milking the fact that he looked pale and drawn and was tiny next to Tia and had big blue eyes, for all it was worth.

Aiden raised an un-amused eyebrow, but she smiled as Danny rolled his eyes and made a sound like a puppy whining.

"Ugh, quit it you'll make me puke" Aiden gently smacked Danny's leg so that he moved it and gave her room to sit down.

"You know"said Danny as Aiden pulled herself across the bottom of the bed, stopping only when she reached Tia's long legs "The chairs they put in here, they're for you guys to sit on. The bed is supposed to be just for me."

"Shut up" the women said in unison.

Danny sighed and muttered something under his breath that neither of them could make out.

"So how'd it go today?" Tia asked picking up a pen and Danny's right arm.

"Good. Sylvester, when he gets out of hospital, is going away for a looooong time. And he turned over on the other guy from the boat house, at last, they found him hiding out in some shithole apartment in tanglewood." She explained as Tia began doodling on Danny's cast.

"What about my best buddy Chuck?" Danny asked.

"Ah, Chuck, the stupidest man alive, was only too happy to confess to everything." Aiden smiled.

"How come?" Danny frowned.

"Well when he woke up, we might have hinted that we would leave him alone in a room with you Flack and a baseball bat" Aiden shrugged "He fell over himself to make an official statement to us."

Danny grinned.

"So it's all good?" he asked.

" Yup. The shootings where all clean too. They buried Vince" She added.

Danny nodded, his grin fading just a little.

"What's the matter?" Aiden asked "You don't miss him do you?"

"No, course not, I just wish I had known why he hated me so much. He said it was cos he didn't like my face but that was bullshittin'. It just bugs me that he's dead now and I'll never know, why all this?" he used his left hand to motion to his injured self.

"He was sick Danny, in the head and in the body…Doc Hawkes thinks he might have been some kinda nuts, he said their was a shadow on one of the scans he did of the assholes brain…he didn't get a chance to crack his nut open but he's been talking about brain tumours" Aiden shrugged.

"I mean when we where kids. He put me in hospital more times than I can count, he just hated me, pure and simple hated my ass. Fuckin asshole" he growled.

"Well hey, he's gone now, you don't gotta worry about it any more"Aiden squeezed Danny's leg comfortingly.

"I guess" Danny half shrugged. He looked at Tia who was still drawing on his cast.

"You alright there?" he asked her sarcastically.

"Peachy keen jelly bean" she told him.

"So…how's work?" Danny tuned back to Aiden, who smiled and settled into her position.

"Well everybody misses you" she started.

* * *

Don Flack was leaning back in his chair, his feet propped up on Danny's bed. Danny was padding around the room a pair of thick woollen socks his only foot wear. He wore black sweatpants and a grey t-shirt with a too worn to be readable logo on the front. He was still feverish, his skin hot to the touch and he wasn't supposed to be out of bed, let alone walking around, but Danny had decided that another minute lying in the hospital bed would actually kill him, so enlisted Flack on his little mission.

Flack wasn't just making himself comfortable in the chair, the angle his chair was tilted at gave him the perfect view out of the window of the room, of the corridor beyond. He was keeping watch for the nurses and doctors who Danny was convinced where out to get him.

"You're good" Flack told the blonde haired CSI as he walked from one end of the room to the other, very slowly. "Well by good I mean, your mortal enemies aren't coming to torture you with needles" Flack raised an eyebrow at Danny's slow, pained movements.

"You don't know what that doctor is like Don, I'm telling you he's gonna get me!" Danny turned around and began to head back the other way.

There was a line of stitches running along his hairline and into his hair, part of which had been shaved away. There was already a light blond fuzz growing back and Danny planned to wait until it got longer, then have all of his hair cut the same length. Flack hated the stitches. He knew the scar would look cool, and that Danny would use it to score with women but Flack despised the fact that it even existed. He wanted very badly to go to the heavily guarded room where Sly lay recovering before he was shipped off to prison hospital and smother the guy with a pillow. He hated that anyone had done that to his friend.

"_Get you_?" Flack asked incredulously.

"Yeah!" Danny told him "he's got plans for me Don, I'm telling you, I'm gonna end up as somebody's bad hospital food" Danny replied, his voice devoid of any kind of joke.

"Okay, you _have_ to get out if this room Messer, you got like, cabin fever or something" Flack chuckled.

"I don't have cabin fever I have an insane Russian doctor with a vendetta against me" he paused "And for no good reason, ignore anything Tia says about what I may or may not have said about this guys political leanings" Danny said, shuffling his feet forward.

Flack laughed out loud as Danny turned again and paused, fixing Flack with a glare. "While you laugh a my dilemma, that evil loony could be creeping up on the room. You know he said he'd sedate me if I got out of bed at all!" he said, his eyes wide. He broke into his usual grin "come on man, I'm dyin here, help me out!"

"Danny, I'm serious, we're leaving" Flack stood.

"Now your talking" Danny grinned "Where we going? Can we go outside?"

"No we can't go out side you bizarrely energetic little freak, we're gonna go to a nurses station on another floor…one that isn't populated by gargoyles if possible, and you are gonna get me a date with a pretty nurse" Flack held his hands out as if he was presenting Danny with a prize.

"But that doesn't work see, cos the nurses cant go out with patients, so what am I supposed to do?" Danny asked, frowning.

Flack ducked out of the room and came back a second later with a wheel chair.

As Danny sat down in it, he repeated his question "Flack, what am I supposed to do!" Flack fitted theI.V bag that was attached to danny's arm onto the little hook device on the chair.

"Danny, shut up and use that little blonde bit you do to get me a date" Don peered out into the corridor

"Little blonde bit? Flack I'm gonna smack you if you don't explain exactly what that means" Danny looked up at Flack as the tall detective pushed the chair out and ran for the elevator.

"Oh you know, you play up the injured thing, stand next to me so they can see what a shortie you are, act all weak…they love it, I've been watching you do it since you got stuck in here" Flack told him as Danny pushed the button for the elevator with a knuckle. "You're such a whore" he chuckled.

" I have absolutely no idea how to respond to that" Danny admitted as the doors pinged open.

"Mr Messer!" A harsh, nasal voice screeched down the corridor.

Flack and Danny looked up to see Nurse Kinyo, the bane of Danny's existence standing near the nurses' station ,glaring at them.

"Mr Messer, _where_ exactly are you going!" the nurse began walking toward them.

"Oh shit" Flack giggled.

"Go man" Danny breathed.

"But we're so busted" Flack said, not taking his eyes off the advancing nurse. She seemed to sense Danny's desire to run and broke into a jog, thundering toward them with a horrible inevitability.

"Go just Go!" Danny laughed and Flack pushed the chair into the elevator, spinning and mashing his hand against the key pad as Nurse Kinyo reached the doors. They slid closed before she could get to them and the elevator lurched, the numbers on lighting up in sequence as the elevator rose.

"You think you're in trouble?" Flack asked as Danny fought not to laugh.

"She's gonna take my jello" Danny told him "It's what she does when I piss her off because she knows it's the only nice part of the hospital meals"

"That's really unfair!" Flack frowned.

"Well, it would be…except that Tia's been sneakin me food in since they said I could eat solids again" Danny said.

"Like what?" Flack leant on the chair.

"Ice cream, Hot Dogs, Subs, big fat pretzels" the blonde detective said " good New York food" he grinned again.

"Do you _ask_ Tia for this stuff?" Flack stood up as the doors pinged open again, pulling the wheel chair out backwards.

"Yeah, I told her that Nurse Hitler down their was stealing my jello so she asked me what she should bring" Danny grinned as they neared the nurses station for the new floor. It appeared to be attended exclusively by bikini models disguised as nurses.

"See, you're a little hospital whore" Flack whispered as the gorgeous nurses spotted them approaching and immediately 'awwed' at the sight of Danny who had turned the 'poor weak Danny' levels up to full.

"If I wasn't a hospital whore" Danny murmured just loud enough for Flack to hear "You would _never_ get laid"

"Hey, what happened to you?" one of the buxom nurses crouched next to Danny's chair.

"Oh, I got hurt working a case, I'm a cop" Danny told her, grinning that Cheshire cat grin.

"Who's your friend?" another nurse smiled at Flack who resisted the urge to rub Danny's head and smiled back.

"Oh, this is Don. He saved my life" Danny nodded as the nurses 'oooh'd' and 'aaah'd' "Yeah, if he hadn't of been there, I don't know what would have happened"

"Who would want to hurt a cutie like you?" One of the nurses pouted and Danny heard Flack whisper ' God bless you Messer you little hospital whore'

* * *

The young nurse looked through the half drawn blinds of Danny Messer's hospital room, half smiling at what she saw. Danny was asleep, exhausted after a day of blood tests and physical exams so the doctors could see how he was recovering. He was curled up in the bed, surrounded by the dozens of bouquets of flowers and other gifts that had arrived for him almost daily since he was admitted to the hospital. The tall black woman, Tia, had left shortly after he dozed off, having tucked what looked like a tiny handmaid pouch under his pillow.

Fifteen minutes before the end of visiting hours, Mac Taylor had arrived, apparently fresh out of work. He had entered Danny's room and sat in the chair, despite the fact that the young CSI was asleep, and had been thee ever since.

The young nurse hadn't worked at the hospital for very long, but even she knew that terms like 'visiting hours' didn't apply when it came to cops.

She opened the door quietly, smiling as Mac looked around at her. "Would you like anything?" she asked "I'm going on my break and if you want I can, pick you something up?"

"No, thank you, I'm fine" Mac smiled back at her.

Nodding, she ducked out of the room, closing the door quietly behind her.

Mac sat back in the chair, watching Danny as the younger man stirred in his sleep. Danny blinked awake, nodding groggily to Mac.

"Hey boss" he said, his voice rough from sleep.

"Hey. They told me you had a rough day?" Mac asked conversationally, knowing Danny wasn't the sort of person for sympathy.

"Its that commie doctor and his evil nurse " Danny explained "They just enjoy causing me more pain" he smiled sleepily at his own running joke "what time is it?"

"Late. I just got out of work and figured I'd come see how you are " Mac told him.

He watched Danny nod slowly as he started to drift back to sleep, his eyelids drooping even as he fell back into dream world. "my dad used to do that" Danny murmured as he nodded off.

Mac grimaced slightly, thinking of the stories Danny had told him about being hospitalised as a child by thugs and kids from his neighbourhood. He sighed, standing and leaving the room as quietly as he could.

A nurse he recognised from his previous visits smiled warmly at him as he walked by the desk. "Hey cheer up" she called to him " no offence, but you act like a dad who's kid had his first really bad fall!"

Mac looked back at the room then at the nurse. He shrugged, smiling sadly as he said "Sometimes, that's exactly how I feel"

* * *

"Gimme the gun Danny" Stella Bonasera held her hand out for the gun, keeping her voice low and calm.

Danny shook his head, grinning wickedly as he levelled the weapon, aiming it directly at her.

"Danny this isn't a game, give me that gun" She snapped as the Cheshire cat grin lit up his face. "If you shoot me with that thing I'm gonna be _pissed_" she told him.

"And I'm supposed to care?" Danny raised an eyebrow as he aimed the barrel directly at the centre of her forehead. Stella looked past his shoulder and grinned. "Got you" she said smugly as Don Flack toughed the tip of his gun to the back of Danny's neck.

Danny's grin didn't even flicker as Don told him to lower his weapon.

"Or what Flack, huh? You wont shoot me" He never took his eyes off Stella "Besides, I think you'll find that _I _have _you"_ .

"What?" Flack asked.

"Hey little brother" came Tia's familiar high pitched voice as she dug the barrel of her gun into Flack's back, reaching over to pluck his from his hands.

Danny stepped back as Tia stepped forward so that the mismatched pair stood side by side. Stella and Flack moved back, hands raised as Danny and Tia aimed their guns.

"You wanna waste em now, or wait for Mac and Aiden" Tia asked him.

"Oh you just wait until they get here, you two are gonna be so dead!" Stella exclaimed.

Danny waved his gun to silence her. "I got a plan" he told Tia.

Five minutes later Flack and Stella sat tied to the chairs that Tia had dragged in, gagged to keep them from giving the plan away.

Tia and Danny hid in the bathroom, leaving the door half open so that they could use it as a shield.

They didn't have to wait long before the door clicked and moved inwards slowly.

Danny was aiming low, knowing that as an ex marine, Mac would try and make himself the smallest target possible.

The door squeaked as it was pushed open until it halted prematurely, stopped b someone on the other side.

Danny waited. He held his breath. A gloved hand appeared around the door but Danny and Tia held from firing at it. They knew it was a decoy designed to make them reveal their position.

They waited again. The top of a head appeared. Once again they held. When nothing happened, the head moved further into the room. It was Mac, moving as slowly, as cautiously as he could. Once again Danny held. Mac's neck and shoulders appeared and Danny squeezed the trigger, whooping as he hit Mac dead in the neck.

The older man fell to the ground grabbing at his neck as Danny and Tia emerged from the bathroom and shot Stella and Flack, all but emptying their weapons on the struggling pair. Tia squealed as she was hit from behind and turned, squeezing off a shot that hit Aiden full in the face. Danny pointed and laughed out loud at the sight.

Mac staggered to his feet, raising his gun. He caught Danny unprepared and as he raised his gun to shoot, Nurse Kinyo stepped into the room and turned on the light, her eyes wide with shock.

In perfect unison, the cops all thrust their hands behind their backs, hiding the water guns from sight.

"What is going on in here?" Kinyo asked.

Stella and Flack who where still tied up and where now soaked, tried to speak through their gags. Kinyo glared at Danny who smiled back innocently. "Clean up in here. Dr Gellar will be down in a moment to discharge you and not a minute to soon" she sneered.

Mac was standing just behind her, his face bright pink with the effort not to laugh. Aiden who was crouching on the floor, her hands covering her soaking wet face was visibly shaking and Tia had turned her back on the nurse, physically biting her own hand.

Aiden made a noise that could only be described as a pig snort and Danny's grin grew ever wider as Mac's eyes went wide and he clapped a hand over his mouth, pinching his nose.

Tia was making a high pitched noise in her throat as Kinyo stared at Danny, her very gaze _daring_ him to laugh. His smile grew painfully wide as he saw Mac's face reach and interesting shade of purple.

Stella was shaking her head from side to side, her eyes streaming with tears of mirth, and Flack was chewing at his gag as if his life depended on it.

Aiden was now almost lying on the floor and Tia had grabbed Danny's arm as he grinned insanely. "Do you have anything to say, Mr Messer?" Kinyo asked.

Danny just shook his head, nit trusting himself to try and speak.

Kinyo looked around at the cops as they fought to get themselves under control.

She shook her head in disgust and stormed out, slamming the door behind her. As Tia went to laugh Danny clapped his good hand over her mouth. They all listened in silence…and a half a miute later they heard the squeak of Kinyo's shoes on the floor as she moved away from the room. Danny let go of Tia who shrieked with laughter and fell to the floor beside Aiden who was gasping between laughs. Mac was bent double with his hands on his knee's as Danny, went to untie Stella and Flack.

* * *

Later that day, the whole CSI team along with Tia and Murphy sat in Danny's apartment sipping drinks. Danny sat in between Tia and Flack, while Aiden and Stella scanned his shelves for a movie to watch. Mac and Murphy where examining Danny's baseball memorabilia.

As Flack took his jacket off, Murphy noticed his still dam shirt and asked what had happened. Sometime later they calmed down enough to explain to Murphy the rules of hospital water fights.

* * *

Okay, I know the end was somewhat un characteristic but I just had so much fun writing it, I wanted this to end on a high note, especially since the next thing I post will be the next part of Lily's story. I realise it was much lighter that Ice in my veins, but that was always my plan before I got the idea for Lily's story. Hope you enjoy this, I did, love and hugs.xxxxxxxxxx 


	7. Kids

Part two of the sequel. Once again, I don't own anything, warnings for violence and the mention of violence etc etc! Thanks for the reviews for the last few chapters, keep them coming, I love them I really do!

Once again, dedicated to missing children, and to my big sis Nieve on whom Detective De Rossi is based!

Oh and Danny's comments on the death penalty are based on somethingI actually said to a spokespersson for Pro Lifers at my school, just so you know what side of the fence I'm on.

* * *

The sandy haired boy, the third person on Danny's list, sat opposite Danny in the interview room. Danny handed the boy a Styrofoam mug of hot chocolate, passing a coffee to the kid's father.

"Sorry about the surroundings" Danny wrinkled his nose as he sat down "We would use the lounge but there's so many people here giving information that all the …pleasant looking rooms are taken" he half shrugged as if to say 'what are you gonna do' .

"It's no problem" the man smiled, rubbing the boys head affectionately.

"What happened to you?" the boy asked suddenly, staring pointedly at the scar that ran along Danny's hairline and under the hair, another reminder of what had happened to him six weeks ago. It was still a noticeable scar, bright pink against Danny's fair skin.

He had also removed his jacket and the dark splint and taped fingers where visible, along with the fading bruising that was a stark contrast to his white and beige clothes.

"Peter!" the dad hissed, nudging his son gently but firmly.

"It's no problem Mr Armstrong. I got beat up by some bad people who had hurt somebody" Danny told Peter.

"Looks like you got your ass kicked" the eight year old kid stated.

Danny laughed and nodded "Well, yeah, I guess I did. But you know what? I won" Danny raised an eyebrow "and the guy who did it is dead"

"Did you kill him?" the boy asked, apparently nonplussed by the talk of a dead man.

"No, but I smacked him real good with a baseball bat" Danny explained.

"Was he gonna kill you?" Peter wrapped his hands around his hot chocolate.

"Yeah he was" Danny was amazed at how calm his own voice was.

"Why?"

"Well, that's a very long story" Danny said "and I think if I tell you it and you get nightmares, your dads gonna kick my ass!" Danny glanced at Peter's father who was frowning apologetically back.

"I wont have nightmares, tell him dad, I never have nightmares" the kid nodded as he spoke.

"Maybe another time. What I really wanna talk about now, or rather, who, is Lily Carter" Danny picked up his pen in his left hand, his wrong hand. His notes where illegible to everyone except himself, but since no one else needed to read them, it was okay.

"Do you remember seeing Lily last Saturday?" Danny asked.

"Yeah" Peter answered "She was with Christina, I like Christina she's a lot of fun" Peter smiled.

"Did you play with Lily?" Danny asked.

"A little bit, but she's younger than me you know, I was playing with more people my age" Peter sipped his hot chocolate.

"When you played with her, what did you play?"

"Well she had been playing with her dolls before, but then we where playing pirates, that's when we went on the climbing frame. She didn't want to be the princess, she wanted to be a pirate, even though she was dressed like a princess, but she makes a real good pirate so I said she could be one, and we where just playin"the kid shrugged.

Danny nodded "Was the slide in your game?" he asked.

"Yeah, it was, um…it was the way to get in to the treasure cave" Peter explained.

"Where was the treasure cave?"

"When you go down the slide, right up ahead of you there's the tunnel, you crawl through there and when you come out you're near the fence, and…"the boy trailed off, staring down at his hands and glancing at his father warily.

"What's the matter?" Mr Armstrong leaned forward, pulling his son into a one armed hug.

"You'll be mad" Peter said quietly.

"Mad about what?" Armstrong asked softly as pulled his son onto his lap, raising the boys head to look into his eyes.

"Well, remember when I was little and I got lost through the hole in the fence and all the parents paid to have the hole fixed up so no one could get in or out through it?" Peters started chewing a nail. "Well, we mighta kinda pushed the hole open and we might sometimes go through there and Lily and some other kids mighta went through on Saturday" Peter stared at the floor "We never told em to, Lily had just never been through before and wanted to see the cave!" he whined, starting to cry.

"What cave?" Danny asked.

"There's…a clearing in the tree's past the fence, and a little rock formation that looks like a treasure cave" Armstrong explained "But we had it all fixed years ago after Peter got through, he was lost for three hours before he got cold and just wandered back to the playground. All the parents made a fuss and we raised the money to have the whole park re fenced, to be safe you know? God if we'd known they where going back through…" he trailed off.

"Peter, did you see Lily come back into the park from the hole in the fence?" Danny kept his voice soft, his tone friendly.

"I don't know if she came back, we went home right after" Peter told Danny.

"What other kids went through?" Danny asked, his strong accent making the word through come out 'tru'.

He turned to a fresh page in his note book and slid it across the table to Peter, handing the boy his pen "Write their names down for me okay?"

As Peter wrote, Danny spoke the Armstrong. "How busy has the park been since Saturday?" he asked the older man.

"Not very, people have been too afraid…why?" Armstrong asked.

"No body told us about this break in the fence…it's likely that he clearing is where Lily disappeared from. I just wanna be sure how compromised the scene might be" Danny explained.

"I go by there everyday, there hasn't been more than one or two people there, a couple of nannies who kept their kids within arms reach at all times"

Danny nodded as Armstrong spoke. Peter pushed the pad back.

"Peter you've been really, really helpful, I just got a couple more questions okay?" Danny smiled at the boy.

"Okay" Peter nodded, smiling back.

"Did you go through the gap in the fence?" Danny asked.

"Nope,I was gonna but then my dad yelled for me."

"Did you see anybody, maybe with funny lookin' brown hair hangin' out by the park, maybe watchin' you guys while you was playin'?"

Peter frowned while he thought about it. "You mean like a stranger?"

"Yeah, somebody you hadn't seen before, or you knew didn't have kids?"

" I saw people I _do_ know who have brown hair, peoples moms and dads, but no stranger" Peter answered earnestly.

"What about any body new? Was there some one there who maybe, had been there a couple of times before but wasn't an old timer like you and your dad?"

Peter shook his head again. "Okay Peter, um , do any older kids or grownups ever go to the cave?" Danny tried.

"Sometimes some ninth graders do" Peter answered.

"You know em?"

"Sure" Peter smiled again.

"You wanna write down their names for me? Are any of em out in the lounge?" Danny asked.

"Two of em are, I don't know about the rest" Peter told him as he wrote.

"They're all the people I've ever seen there, if there are more, you'll have to ask them" Peter pointed at the names.

"Peter can you do me a favour?" Danny asked the boy.

"What favour?" Peter replied.

"Never go through that gap in the fence again? And tell all of your friends not to? Because I can see just by lookin that your dad is gonna get that hole fixed again but that didn't stop you guys the last time huh? So you gotta be like a deputy cop and make sure everyone knows that it's out of bounds for keeps, yeah?" Danny winked at the kid as if he was letting him in on some big secret.

Peter grinned and nodded at Danny, then around at his dad who smiled at him

"I'm real proud of you Pete, you been a really big help today" Danny said as he moved toward the door , the lists of names in his hand "If you was my kid, I'd buy you like, ten ice creams" Danny shrugged, looking sidelong at Peter who grinned knowingly, evilly, and looked up at his dad.

"Fine, we'll go for ice cream, but you're not getting ten!" Armstrong picked his son up.

"We'll call you if we need either of you to come back in" Danny said as he walked with the man back to the lounge area "But I doubt we'll need to, this has been a great help"

"Call me if you need any kind of help detective. Lily was a sweet little kid, I want to help catch this bastard before he hurts another baby" Armstrong turned to Danny,

They shook hands, carefully, considering the state of Danny's hands, and Armstrong left.

"Anything good?" Nicole asked as she waved good bye to a bespectacled six year old and her parents.

" Actually, I might have found out how Lily disappeared " Danny told her, explaining quickly about the fence.

"Why didn't we hear about this before!" Nicole asked.

"From the sounds of it, the parents didn't know it existed, they did a couple years ago but they got it fixed. The kids just picked their way through. It would explain how she seemed to vanish into thin air, and how she was removed from the park. It makes me wonder if the guy was waiting for anyone to come along or if he specifically wanted Lily and lucked out. Damn, the more questions we answer-"

"The more we start asking" Nicole finished for him "Worry about motive later Danny, for now get all the information we can and we'll put it all together when we have it" She smiled at him again and he nodded.

"Lois Adams?" she called out, reading off her own list and a frizzy haired, stressed looking woman walked toward her, five little boys in tow. As Nicole moved away, Danny looked at the list Mac had given him and the list Peter had made.

He followed the new leads and held up Peters list "Any ninth graders step forward please?" he yelled.

A pair of fourteen year olds slunk toward him, moving away from their parents and younger siblings. "What are your names?" he asked them.

"I'm Zach Marsh, this is Katy Li" The boy spoke.

"Well I'll talk to you two together then" Danny ticked their names off Peters list.

"Don't you need like, our parents permission or what ever?" Zach asked, scratching his head boredly.

"You both fourteen?" Danny looked at them.

"Yeah"

"Then no I don't need your parents permission, especially since I'm not arresting you , I'm just askin you some questions real quick okay?" Danny smiled grimly. He led the pair back to the interview room that had become his personal base of operations and sat down opposite them at the table.

Zach was staring at the scar on Danny's head, his mouth hanging open dumbly.

Katy was sighing as if just being in the room was some massive effort and Danny fought the urge to yell at them.

"So you go to the clearing by the park?" he asked them out right.

"Yeah, sometimes" Zach answered.

"What do you do there?"

Like, stuff, you know?" Zach replied in that same idiot drawl.

Danny banged his good hand hard on the table, making both the teenagers jump and stare at him wide eyed.

"Now that I've got your attention I'll start again" Danny snapped "Do you go to that clearing?"

"Yes!" Zach answered.

"What do you do there?"

"We just hang out, we talk, we drink, we smoke sometimes…it's a good make out spot too. Plus the tree's are real tight over it, so the weather doesn't screw it up" Zach explained.

"Where you there on Saturday?" Danny wrote down Zach's answers.

"When Lily disappeared? I was for like, a half hour, but then my mom paged me to go pick up some groceries so I bailed" Zach said.

"Did you see any of the kids from the park in the clearing before you left?" Danny asked, calmer now that he was actually getting answers.

"Not while I was there. I heard them coming through though, laughing and talking, but I left before they actually reached the clearin'" Zach told him.

"How about you, Katy?"Danny looked at the Asian girl.

"I was there in the afternoon, way after the police got called" She told him.

"Did you see anything there?"

Katy looked up at him, really looking at him. She smiled dazzlingly, leaning over on the table and fluttering her eyelids flirtatiously. "Are you really a cop?" she asked.

"Yes I am" Danny said through gritted teeth.

"You're way too cute to be a cop" she said, reaching forward as if to take his hand. Danny leaned back in his chair, glaring at the girl "What are you doin?" he asked angrily.

"I just wanna talk" she grinned.

"How old are you? You're a baby, don't debase yourself" Danny stated.

"What? You can't say that to me?" she sat back, her face flushing red with shame.

"Oh, I think I can. What are you doin throwin yourself at a guy like me? Do you know what happened to Lily Carter?" he snapped.

"Somebody kidnapped her" the girl shrugged as if to say 'so what'.

"Someone molested and murdered her" Danny corrected "And you're sittin there flirtin with somebody twice your age like nothing's happened" He shook his head, disgusted and disappointed. "You know that behaviour like that makes you a target for the wrong kind of people" he said, his voice softer.

"What? Nu uh, short eyes only go for little kids, I'm too old to have to worry about that stuff!" she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Holy shit you really believe that?" Danny stood up, pacing the room.

After a few minutes he sat back down again, staring at the kids as if to try and see if they where joking. "Do you realise, that every police force in the country has a department that hires women who look fourteen so that we can catch out paedophiles in the act? We set up meetings between guys who claim to be fifteen or sixteen, and when we arrest em, they're _always_ thirty or older. Being fourteen doesn't make you safe! Paedophiles, sometimes they prefer someone who's fourteen because what they desire, what does it for them, is that in between phase teenagers go through, when you guys are starting to look like young adults but you still look like little kids. Exactly like you look right now!" the anger had drained out of him leaving him tired and, he thought about it…really tired.

"I didn't know that" Katy said softly "But I'm not stupid enough to go with some stranger" she said, growing angry again.

"I'm gonna have one of our councillors call you at home, to give you all the information on this, because right now I just wanna know what happened to Lily." Danny said wearily. "You where there after the police had been called…did you see anything?" he asked.

"No, I didn't stay long, I was supposed to be meeting my friend but she lives in the same building that Lily did and her mom didn't want her to go out. She called me and I went over to her place. I was only there, maybe ten minutes" her voice was almost apologetic.

"While either of you where there did you see anyone older? An adult maybe? Wearing a brown wig? We think he would have been a big guy maybe?" Danny rubbed at his eyes again.

There was a pause, and thinking they wheren't going to answer, he shrugged and stood as if to leave "Some times older kids go there, to hang out, but not on Saturday. But I think I saw somebody like what you said" Zach spoke up. "When I was leaving, the woods beyond the clearing open out right onto the footpath… there was a guy sitting on a bench, reading a book or a magazine. I only noticed him cos the magazine looked like a skin mag you know? Porno or something" he explained "I didn't see his face but he had brown hair, kinda…big, weird lookin"

Danny wrote it down quickly looked to Katy.

"Anything you wanna add?" he asked her.

She shook her head.

"Fine" he walked them out to the lounge.

* * *

Four hours later all of the families had left and Danny, Aiden, and Nicole and Mike where driving out to the park to take a look at the clearing. Mike was driving with Nicole in the passenger seat and the two CSI's in the back. Danny was half dozing, nursing a hot coffee which he occasionally sipped. "So the kids who where with Lily said that she stayed behind in that clearing on her own, they didn't see anything or anyone" Danny murmured.

"You know I was almost grabbed once" Aiden said conversationally.

"How did that happen?" Nicole asked, turning in her seat.

"I was walking along with a friend of mine, when I was like, six, and this car pulled up by the curb and the dude opened his door. We knew no to talk to strangers but this guy seemed like he was askin for directions you know? He wasn't offering us sweets or nothing, so we stopped. And he was talking real quiet, I know now it was on purpose, so I kept stepping closer and closer to the car to hear him, not thinking about it, and I got close enough and he just reached out and grabbed my wrist" she told them.

"What did you do!" Nicole stared at her.

"I screamed, I whacked him with my bag, but he wouldn't let go, but, luckily, a group of guys, like eighteen or nineteen years old, from my building, they came around the corner and saw me screaming bloody murder and my friend pulling on me to try and get me away and they came running over to help and the guy just let go and drove away" Aiden shrugged. "We told the police but he had kept his face hidden and they found the car dumped a couple of days later, it had been stolen so…"

"Oh wow" Nicole breathed "Wheren't you…scared, traumatised?" She asked.

Aiden shrugged, reaching up to pull her dark hair back into a ponytail "At first yeah, but then my brothers started escorting me everywhere and I got over it, I just learned a _really_ important lesson" she shrugged again.

"There was a guy, when I was growin up, this old timer who lived on his own" Danny sat up in his seat "He was friendly, a widower I think, I remember he had a bad heart so he was always wheezing…but he had been in the war, and he used to tell all us kids all these stories about the missions he had been on…we would all go over to his place and he would always have cookies and candy…I guess he was lonely and enjoyed the company…I used to go over a lot on my own, cos I didn't always wanna hang out with the Tanglewoods, and I couldn't always be at home cos my dad would get violent when he drank, so I would go listen to him tell these stories…I tell ya, I aced every world war two based history exam I ever had! But one day, all of a sudden, every body turned on this guy. I never found out what triggered it but all of a sudden nobodies parents would let them go over…I guess some one musta said something but we got so angry about it…we would sneak over there to talk to him and he would be so scared, he'd be throwing us out, beggin us not to come back…someone must have threatened him, spooked him real bad" Danny pulled the lid off his coffee.

"Had he done anything?" Mike asked, glancing at Danny in the rear view.

"We never found out. The…I guess, freeze out for lack of a better term, lasted for a month then the poor old S.O.B died. I don't think anything bad ever happened. Like I say I was over there a lot on my own and he never…tried anything ya know? And no girls ever went over there…it was cruel, the whole adult population of the neighbourhood just turned on him and they would never tell us why" he shook his head slowly, sadly.

"We had a guy like that, back in Liverpool, who everyone thought was really nice…we didn't go around to his house but we would talk to him when we saw him…when he died, because he lived alone no one realised he hadn't been around for a while and the police had to break in…he had fallen down the stairs carrying a box full of videos's and magazines…all kiddie porn" Nicole shook her head in amazement.

"Jesus!" Danny breathed.

"I know…we all used to think we had like…a radar, for people like that, that we could just tell when someone was a bit…creepy, but he fooled everyone"

"I knew a kid got took" Mike spoke up "A kid I went to school with, got nabbed on his way to the store when he was about eight…he turned up a day or so later, he'd been…raped, abused. When he was eighteen he tried to grab a little boy outside of school…he didn't, cos the parents stopped him, so he went home, and he killed himself."

"Fucking paedophiles. We should bring back burnin" Danny sneered "No trial, no jury, just let cops carry flame throwers and light the bastards up" he swallowed the last of his coffee.

Nicole nodded in agreement. "Hell Yeah" she said softly.

Aiden shrugged "I don't know, sendin em to prison where all the other inmates know what they did is kinda fun too" she mused.

"You know I was talking to this pro lifer once, at some conference we had, and, see I'm all for the death penalty, for the right guys you, know, there's some scum that just needs to be wiped off the face of the earth and she, the pro lifer, had just given this speech about how responding to crime with death, or an eye for an eye or what ever, wasn't moral, didn't help anything, yadda yadda yadda, and she asked if we had any questions, so I stood up, and I said ' so you're saying that if some guy raped and killed dozens of little girls, and was on death row for it, you would campaign for him to be kept alive, even knowing what he had done?' and she tells me 'yeah, because wouldn't it be worse for him to be alive, knowing what horrible things he had done?'

And I said 'no, because he doesn't think of them as terrible things, otherwise he wouldn't have done them, he'll sit there enjoying his memories for the rest of his life and you're comfortable with that?'" he crumpled the Styrofoam cup in his hands "She didn't know what to say to that…hopefully I made a convert" he smiled, but it was forced.

They had reached the park and climbed out, wrapping respective coats and scarves around themselves. The rain was almost torrential, falling from the sky in painful sheets, as if the gods themselves where mourning for Lily.

"Will there be any thing left to collect?" Mike asked the CSI's as they made there way toward the park. The guard who was normally on duty sat under a wide umbrella, with a uniform cop who had been assigned to the park.

The four detective's joined them under the umbrella while they explained why they where there. The guard and cop nodded grimly, cursing the weather.

"The eighth graders told me that this clearing has natural cover from the tree's…hopefully he was right" Danny told them as they reached the spot on the gate. They climbed over the fence and pushed through a thin layer of shrubs. There was a small worn path way behind the shrubs and they followed it until they reached the clearing. Amazingly enough, it was relatively dry. There where a few muddy patched where rain had gotten in, but the thick leaves mostly created a kind of roof over the clearing, filling the air with the sound of the rain hitting the leaves. It was dark in the clearing.

Three teenagers sat in the clearing, huddled around a tiny campfire. They where passing a joint around and didn't notice the four detective's arrival.

"Hey, knuckleheads!" Mike snapped.

The kids looked around at them lazily, too high to do anything else.

"Who are you?" one of them asked slowly.

"We're cops genius" Mike stepped over, stamping the fire out and dragging the kid to his feet "This better be oregano" he snatched the joint from the kids hands.

"Hey, wait" the kid tried to protest.

"You come here often?" Mike asked the boy, who was maybe seventeen as his companions slowly, dazedly stood up.

"You hittin on me?" The kid squinted at Mike.

His friends started laughin as Mike smacked the kid upside the head, "No you jackass, we're investigatin a murder" he told him.

"Lily Carter right?" One of the kids asked, "She was friends with my little sister" the African American teen stepped over "That's a damn shame what happened to her" he nodded.

He didn't seem as stoned as his friends so Danny and Aiden moved toward him.

"What's you name kid?" Aiden asked as Nicole approached the third stoner and began questioning him.

" Marcel" the kid told her nodding again, "My little sister is Dessie, you guys had her down at the station today with my moms and the nanny, askin what happened right?" he asked. He kept on nodding and Danny shot Aiden a look. She raised an eye brow in response and they turned back to Marcel.

"So you know all about what happened?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, they closed down the school, sent e'erbody home early, said we should be sending flowers to Miss Carter, like that's gonna help her now" he sucked his teeth "Hey is my baby sister safe? Is this fucker gonna come back, cos if I think anybody might hurt Dessie I'm gonna kill his ass no questions asked" He said.

"Where were you on Saturday, when you found out a kid was missin? We know a lot of people pitched in to help look for her…" Danny looked up at the kid who had at least five inches on him.

"Yeah I helped. I was in my room, on the computer and Keisha, she's Dessie's sitter, she came runnin in said Lily had disappeared from the play ground, said people was goin out to look. I grabbed a flashlight and went out too, Keisha stayed in with Dessie and I called some my friends and we all joined in lookin but she was long gone" Marcel told them, his voice sad. " I didn't even think to look in here. I didn't think the little kids knew about this place" he told them "I ever catch Dessie comin in here and I'm telling my grandma. My moms'll yell at her but nana? She'll scare the crap out of her, make sure she don't ever wanna come in here again" he tutted.

"Well we think that this is where Lily disappeared from, so we're gonna need you to hang around…you might have picked up some of our evidence without even meaning to" Aiden told him.

"Sure, you need me to go to the station house with you? Cuz I will if I gotta, I want this guy caught too, before another little baby gets hurt" he grinned at them.

"I aint goin with no cops!" The teen Mike had been talking to called over.

"Shut up" Mike smacked him again "You are goin with us because if you don't, I'm gonna arrest you for obstructing a police investigation" Mike explained.

"We goin Larry, this is bout that little girl got killed, Dessie's friend" Marcel told his companion.

"Aw man, we didn't to nothing to her!" Larry stepped back "I didn't hurt no kids!" he exclaimed.

"We know ya didn't ya fuckin lemon head, but this clearing might be where she was taken from, so by bein here you mighta compromised the evidence. We need to examine your clothes for anything you might have picked up" Mike said.

"Do…do I need a lawyer?" the wasted teen asked.

"Not if you volunteer to help us. Which you are going to do, aren't you" it wasn't a question.

"Aw man!" Larry said again.

"This one would probably dance if we asked him to" Nicole pointed at the third, truly hammered teen.

"Damn" Aiden cursed " Can we get em some coffee or something, try and sober em up" she said " and could somebody go to the jeep and get us some big collection bags and some blankets, we'll have to take their jackets, shoes and pants…anything that might have touched the floor or tree's" She set down her kit.

Mike pulled a radio form his pocket and hit the send button, telling the uniform on the gate what they needed.

While they waited, Nicole and Mike took down the teens' personal information as Danny and Aiden began photographing everything. They identified dozens of footprints, but managed to find enough separate samples for identification. Next they moved onto litter, going on the theory that the perp had used drugged candy to lure and subdue Lily. They found and bagged dozens of pieces of litter, chip packets, candy wrappers, even an abundance of condom wrappers. "I was gonna suggest running the UV light over this scene, but I think we're talking cheap motel levels of sex goin on in here" Danny told Aiden as he picked up yet another silver wrapper.

Aiden wrinkled her nose in disgust "You think it's all that romantic out here at night?" she asked.

Danny cast a look around the dim, damp clearing "Maybe in the summer?" he suggested.

The uniform arrived with the blankets and a tray of coffee's, enough for the kids and the detectives to each have one. "I'll get the clothes" Aiden said and moved off.

Danny nodded, shining his flash light into the tiny 'cave' that was the source of so much amusement for the kids. It wasn't deep, but it was unnaturally dark, more so than it should have been even in the dying light. Danny shuddered involuntarily.

"Scared of monsters?" Nicole said in his ear, making him jump.

"Hell yeah, I'd be stupid not to be" he admitted. "How can little kids think this place is cool?" he asked, moving further into the cave, debating whether or not it was worth going back to the jeep for the brighter spot lights.

"How do you mean?" Nicole asked, turning her own flash light on and shining it into the darkness. It didn't help much.

"About me bein scared or about little kids" Danny asked her, shaking his flash light as the beam flickered "Damn batteries" he murmured.

"The scared thing"

"Well, where I grew up, if you wheren't scared you where stupid and if you where stupid you where dead" Danny explained.

"What about monsters? Did you believe in the boogey man?" She asked, and there was something in her voice that made him look at her.

"Why?" he asked.

"It just fascinates me…in the UK, we don't have this whole…boogey man thing that Americans do…you guys have like, this whole psychology based around the boogey man, hundreds of children get terrified by this thing, have nightmares…you even have these night terror things…I don't know a single British child who has ever been afraid of the boogey man or anything like that" Nicole explained.

"Really?" Danny banged his torch on his hand and the beam flickered back to life. "Like not ever?"

"No…I mean they have nightmares and get scared of things obviously, but I've personally never met a British child who thought the boogey man was trying to get them, or lived in the cupboard" She shifted on her feet, trying to let more light into the cave "Just go in there!" she jokingly pushed him.

"What? No way, you go in there, you're the one who doesn't believe in the boogey man. If you don't believe in him, he can't get you, so…you go in there" Danny pushed her back.

"Oh you're just like my knight in shining armour aren't you" Nicole shot him a quick grin.

Danny held his light close to the ground. He saw a strange mark in the mud, like something had been dragged. He pulled his camera around and made sure the flash was on before he took a dozen photographs of the drag marks, crawling further into the cave. Keeping his flash light close to the ground, he snapped off more photo's even though he wasn't sure how they would come out. He moved the camera back out of his own way and shined the light around again. He used his tweezers to pick up more candy and condom wrappers. As he reached the back of the little cave, his light made something sparkle and he picked up what looked like a tiny gem stone. It was the same colour as the purple part of Lily's dress. "Do me a favour and phone Stella, ask her if she found any gem stones on Lily's dress, or a gap where they might have fallen off" Danny called to Nicole as he picked up the gem.

Nicole stepped away from the cave entrance as Danny gently rooted through the dirt. He turned up two more gems, but no more. As he shuffled out of the cave and stood up, pushing his chest out to arch his back, Nicole walked over to him. Danny felt his vertebrae pop and crack and sighed with relief as the dull ache that had been growing at the base of his spine began to fade.

"Stella said that the dress didn't have any gems on, nor did it have any places for them to go" Nicole told him.

"But I found-" Danny started to say.

"So, she checked on the Princess Mia website, and the same dress should have six little purple gems sewed onto the front" she drew her finger across the front of her chest, under her breasts "Where the seam would be on the dress. She had another look, the gems aren't there. But there _where_ tiny holes where they should have been sewed on, and she thinks some of them might have been pulled off, but the rest cut"

"Three right?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, how did you know?" She frowned at him.

He held up the three little gems he had found as Aiden walked over carrying three big paper bags. "I think she hid" Danny told them.

"There are drag marks in that cave, and these gems where back there. I think Lily curled up in there to hide and he dragged her out. Or maybe…maybe he gave her the stuff that put her asleep and she came in here, either way she was in here and she was dragged out, and these gems came off've her dress. I really think he drugged her here cos otherwise she woulda screamed" Danny explained.

"I'm gonna go check out the proper footpath" Danny nodded in the direction of the path.

"Well I'll get these guys and their clothes back to the labs, then we can see if this guy left anything behind. And I'll check in with Jane to see if she got anything off that hair." Aiden told him.

"Cool" Danny nodded.

"I'll go back with you" Nicole told Aiden "I'll follow up on that list of cars- uh, I'll send a car back to get you guys"

"All right" Aiden nodded. They walked away, leaving Danny with Mike.

The two men edged along the concealed pathway, Danny using his torch to light the way. They emerged onto rain soaked public pathway having found nothing new. As they stood in the rain, looking around, Mike squinted at the bench that Zach had mentioned.

"That it?" He pointed.

"Gotta be" Danny shrugged as they headed over to the bench.

Danny crouched to look under the painted green bench, leaning over to see if there was anything worth collecting. "Too much rain, too late in the case" He told Mike as he stood.

Mike nodded raising the collar of his jacket around his neck as he glanced up at the darkened sky. There was a sudden resonant bang and both men instinctively reached for their guns, looking around for what they thought was a gun shot. The air flashed silvery blue and the rain got stronger. "Damn" Mike stared right up at the sky "Just what we need"

"I don't know, bad weather, less kids out on the street, less chances for this guy to repeat" Danny looked over at the darker haired man " You keep lookin up like that you're gonna drown" he shuddered against the cold.

Mike looked at him "Hey aren't you supposed to avoid getting sick or something?" he asked, remembering Danny's recent close call

"Isn't everybody?" Danny shot back, smiling.

He turned to look down the path in opposite direction as lightning flashed, and he froze. Raising his torch he clicked it on and took a half step forward.

"What is it?" Mike stepped thunder boomed and lightning flashed again.

In the undergrowth behind and to the left of the bench, something reflected the light oddly. Danny stepped forward moving the leaves aside with the tip of his shoe. He crouched down and gently pulled the leaves away from what he revealed to be a magazine cover. He photographed it, pulling it out onto the path way carefully, as it was soaked through. There was a naked woman on the cover, posing provocatively as she eyed the camera. "Zach said he saw a guy reading a porno magazine when he left the park, a guy with brown hair…we found brown hairs from a wig on Lily…and here we have porn…I doubt this is a coincidence" he said as he examined the cover. "But it's only the cover…" he said.

"Maybe the rest… ever pick up a heavy magazine just by the cover?" Mike asked.

"Yup, the rest of it just tears right off" Danny nodded. "So who ever dropped this, he musta been in a hurry to get out of here, cos check out the price tag on this thing 'Wet and Wild'" Danny pointed to the $18 dollar label as he read the title of the nagazine aloud.

"That's not exactly retail, a skin mag that pricey is special order…but I don't get it, it just looks like your basic porno" Mike frowned. He stood, moving away as his cell phone rang.

Danny saw the opportunity to crack a joke but let it slide. He bagged the magazine and they cut back through the clearing and out into the park, relieved to see one of their jeeps idling, waiting for them to approach.

As Danny put his kit into the back of the jeep, he held the clear plastic bag containing the magazine cover up to the light. In one corner, partially obscured by mud, he could see a white stick on label, printed with an address.

"Hey Mike?" he called, and the detective stepped around beside him. "You see that?" he pointed to the address.

"That's not too far away from here" Mike said.

"Yeah. It's like, what, a ten minute drive? It's gonna take us a half hour to get back to the lab" Danny stated, his voice carefully empty.

"We should probably swing by this guys place…he might have seen something" Mike shrugged." Oh by the way, that was Mac, Dr Hawkes got back to him, there have been four cases before this one with the same M.O, the same bruising pattern on the victims, same sedative in their blood. This guy even has a preference, five to six years old, blonde hair, blue eyes. His preferred…hunting ground…is public playgrounds like this one, crowded out doors places where people aren't gonna notice a kid missing right away" he told the CSI "this guys readin' porno magazines thirty yards away from a kids play ground? We definitely should pay him a visit"

"Yeah, I mean this guy could be a material witness too scared to come forward" Danny nodded.

"Yeah" Mike agreed.

"Wait a second" Danny frowned, holding the cover closer to the light. He pinched it between his thumb and fore finger, sliding his fingers so the cover wrinkled.

"Hey, careful!" Mike exclaimed, almost reaching for the cover.

Danny put the bag down and pulled on a pair of gloves, opening the bag and taking the cover out. He pulled a switch blade out of his pocket and opened it with a flick of his wrist. Mike watched him, his gaze switching from Danny's face to the cover, back and forth between the two.

Danny put the tip of his knife against the edge of the cover and slowly pushed it forward. It slid under the cover and Danny moved the knife the way you would a letter opener, separating what Mike realised was two separate covers. There was something tacky, glue that had lost its grip after being in the rain. Danny put down his knife and pulled the covers apart. He set them down side by side. On the right was the 'Wet and Wild' cover. On the left, the newly revealed cover, still tacky in places from the glue, showed a smiling little girl waving at the camera. She was nude, and even though it was a photograph, the detectives could see that the girls eyes where glazed, that her grin was the fixed smile of the heavily sedated. A printed title read 'Little Secrets'.

"Motherfucking son of a bitch asshole" Mike growled, his voice dropping so low it was imperceptible.

Danny quickly bagged and stored the new cover, avoiding looking at it while he put it away. "We goin?" he pointed to the address on the first cover.

"Wild horses couldn't stop me"

* * *

The uniform stayed in the car, guarding the evidence that had already been collected and waiting for the back up as Mike and Danny walked up the steps of the apartment building. A woman was walking out as they walked in and they flashed their badges at her as she made to push the door closed behind her.

Stepping out of the rain into the foyer of the building, Mike snatched the collar of a boy walking past then, a kid no older than twelve.

"You know Mr M. Booth?" He asked the boy, holding his badge up for the kid to see.

"Melvin? Sure I know him, he's hard to miss, real big, stupid red hair" The boy shrugged, pulling his collar out of Mike's hand.

"What apartment is he in?" Danny asked.

"Why?" the kid sneered "He do something?"

"He's a short eye, you know what that is?" Danny snapped at the boy.

"I knew it, he's such a fuckin creep!" the kid gasped "He's in eleven, next floor up, at the end of the corridor" the kid pointed to the elevators "He's usually in around now but he's been coming and goin a lot lately" he told them.

"Thanks kid, get outta here" Mike jerked his chin in the direction of the doors, reaching for his radio to tell the uniform which floor to send the backup too.

"You gonna kill him?" the boy asked, sounding both horrified and excited at the prospect.

"Go" Mike said quietly, and something in his voice made the kid turn and run.

As they rode up in the elevator, Mike rolled his neck as if he was loosening up. "Can we legally do this?" he asked, rubbing a hand through his still damp hair.

"Sure. The evidence was in plain sight in a public park, and the nature of the crime suggests that Melvin is a risk to others, to children no less" Danny unfastened the buttons on his jacket. He didn't draw his gun but he had made it a whole lot easier to reach for.

Mike's jacket was already unfastened and as the elevator pinged and the doors slid open, he placed a hand on the hilt of his gun, popping open the thin leather band that held it in place. Danny mimicked him as they stepped forward and looked around.

"Number eleven" Mike pointed. At the far end of the dimly lit, dismally painted corridor, the apartment door looked like the entrance way to hell. Which, Danny thought, for Melvin's victims it probably was.

"Creepy door" he whispered, and Mike nodded in agreement.

"We goin into this as cops or mercenaries?" Mike asked as they neared the door, and Danny pulled up short.

"If we knock it could warn him, but if we don't knock and something happens, it's gonna look like we just came here to kill him" Danny thought out loud. "Screw it, we'll knock…if he runs we get to shoot him" Danny grinned cruelly.

They stepped up to the door. Danny rapped hard on the wooden door, resisting the urge to kick it.

There was a moment of silence, then a muffled voice called out "Who is it?"

"Mr Booth? This is the police" Mike replied, his voice calm and almost friendly. "We're investigating a case and we have reason to believe you may have witnessed something" Mike said.

"Uh…I don't know what you mean, I haven't seen anything" Came the response, and Danny rolled his eyes.

" Sir it's possible you didn't realise that what you saw was significant, we really need to explain the full situation to you to help jog your memory" Danny yelled.

"Well go on then"

"Sir we'd prefer it if we could do this inside?" Mike asked.

"Um, I'm not really prepared for visitors right now" Melvin called back " I'm not really dressed"

"We don't mind" Mike told him.

"I'd really prefer it if we could do this another time, maybe you could come back?" Melvin asked.

"No, sir, this is really a case of time, we don't have enough of it and we really need to get this done now. Open the door" Mike called, the friendly tone disappearing from his voice.

Danny drew his gun and Mike followed suit as Melvin called back " I don't appreciate this harassment, I want you to leave"

"Open the door Melvin" Danny said.

"Go away!" Melvin's voice was fearful but angry.

"Damn it, open the door!" Mike snapped.

"No, you can't make me!" Melvin cried back.

"We have a kiddie porn magazine with your name on it Mel, literally, we know it was you who took Lily Carter, open the fucking door!" Danny yelled.

There was a thump and a squeak and Mike and Danny wordlessly stepped back and simultaneously kicked the door as hard as they could. Melvin had at least half a dozen locks on the door but the wood of the door and the surrounding frame was soft and gave way under the kicks.

Danny and Mike, guns raised, entered the apartment quickly but cautiously. They split up, Danny heading right, down the small corridor that led to the bedrooms.

Mike went left, toward the kitchen and living room. Danny pressed his back to the wall as he edged along, heading for the first room. He peered inside, seeing a bed, a tv, a chest of drawers. He pushed the door all the way open, making sure no one was hiding behind it and stepped far enough into the room that he could see it was empty of Melvin.

He ducked back out, heading for the next room, which was also empty. The third door was the bathroom, and while Danny doubted that Melvin was hiding in the small room, he edged in any way. He pulled back the shower curtain revealing an empty bath and lowered his gun as his arms began to twitch from holding the weapon up for so long. He turned in the small room, stepping back out into the corridor. There was a tiny linen closet and Danny raised his gun in his right hand, ignoring the pain from his fingers and wrist, and stepped toward the closet, feeling slightly foolish for doing so. He doubted even he himself could have fit in the closet, but he'd rather be sure than dead. Danny grabbed the handle and swung the door open quickly, stepping back out of reach. The closet was empty of people, containing only towels and sheets and Danny turned to head back toward Mike when something smashed against the back of his head. He hit the deck, shards of whatever he had been hit with falling along with him and tried to turn onto his back to raise his gun. A heavy foot stomped down twice on his right wrist and hand and for a second Danny forgot how to breathe as the barely healed bones snapped under the boot.

Then he remembered and screamed, pulling his hand in close to is body as he was kicked, the tip of a boot catching him in the solar plexus.

He saw spots as his attacker, Melvin, ran away. Danny heard a shout and another thump, then a crash as something broke. He rolled onto his back, bunching his stomach muscles to pull himself into a sitting position. Groaning, he used his left hand to climb to his feet, leaning heavily against the wall as he picked up his gun and the world swam. He could feel blood on his head as he walked, and his right arm throbbed with pain with every step he took. Mike was on his hands and knee's by the door, coughing hard as he tried to breath. There was a bloody shard of glass near the door, and Mike's left hand was covered in blood.

Danny slid down the wall so he was sitting as Mike got his breath back and leaned back against the door frame, holding his wounded hand up in front of him.

"You okay?" Danny asked, feeling ill as his arm throbbed again.

"Bastard came at me with a pipe or something then kicked me all in the ribs. So I smacked him with a bowl" Mike slowly moved the fingers on his wounded hand.

Danny thought about trying to move his fingers and felt sick again, so didn't try it.

" He musta gone out of the window in the bathroom or something, cos I checked those rooms and they where empty, then next thing he's hittin me from behind" Danny groaned. "My doctor gets pissy if I get hit in the head. He might actually ground me for this"

"Ugh, God, Nicole's gonna love this. Ever since I met her I've gotten hurt three times on a case, and all three times she wasn't there…she has a theory that she's my lucky charm or something. Ow. She's just gonna milk this to death" Mike grabbed his wrist and squeezed.

"You get hurt and she milks it?" Danny asked as the elevator pinged and Don Flack and Mac Taylor stepped onto the corridor.

"Yeah" Mike nodded. He looked at Danny. "Shut up"

"I didn't say a word" Danny held up his good hand as Don and Mac reached them.

"What happened!" Mac asked crouching between the detectives.

"Well, we found the guy, but we lost him again" Mike told him. "And he kicked our asses one after the other"

"You guys might wanna see this" Flack called from somewhere within Melvin's apartment.

Mac helped Danny and Mike to their feet, and they walked to where Flack stood, looking into the living room. There where magazines, more copies of 'Little Secrets', video's with carefully chosen titles that made them seem like home video's, and on the coffee table, sitting on top of a photo album, there was a picture of Lily, sitting in the back of a car, her hands tied in front of her, her dress cleaner than it had been when her body was found.

She stared up at the camera, her eyes wide but angry. There was a time code on the picture.

"Four hours after this was taken" Danny spoke, breaking the silence that had settled over the room "She was dead"


	8. Almost

Part three of the sequel.

Danny and Mike sat side by side in the back of the ambulance. Danny was leaning over slightly while a dark haired paramedic named Jim wiped at the cut on the back of his head, trying to decide if it would need stitches or not.

Mike was cradling his now bandaged hand against his body while his partner Nicole talked at him about how he should have waited for her.

Mike was staring at nothing, a slightly desperate look on his face as Nicole spoke, occasionally flexing and unflexing his fingers to make sure he still could. "Nicole, please shut up" Mike murmured, still staring at nothing.

"Look at you two!" Nicole waved her arm, including Danny who looked up wide eyed, wincing.

"What!" Danny asked, the innocent expression on his face making him look about twelve "Why am I getting in trouble for this?" he asked.

"You both went into this together, why didn't you wait for the back up to arrive, you could have been killed!" Nicole snapped at them.

Danny shot a look at Mike who gave him a 'see what I mean?' look in response.

"What was that, was that about me!" Nicole stepped forward angrily.

"What's your problem Nic!" Mike snapped "We followed the evidence to this apartment, we know this is the guy who hurt Lily, and yeah, okay, he got away and hurt us in the process but we know that, so quit bitchin!"

Danny held his breath, and Jim the paramedic tensed behind him.

"Excuse me!" Nicole asked her voice dangerously low.

Mike looked at her, pursing his lips as he tried to think of a response. "I don't mean bitching, I just mean…Danny has a head ache, so please be quiet and….I'll buy you dinner tonight and lunch for a week and again Danny's in pain" he ducked his head.

"Don't you drag me down with you" Danny muttered as Nicole glared at her injured partner. Her leg lashed out and Mike yelled out in pain and rubbed his shin while Nicole stood glaring at him, muttering something about the word 'bitch'.

'Nic, I'm sorry but please don't be angry' Mike stopped rubbing his stinging shin and looked at his irate partner

Nicole sighed "I'm angry because I'm worried. What if this guy had had a gun or something? Or if he had done worse than just cut your hand? I just want you to be more careful!" She glared at him for a second longer and then looked at Danny who grinned dazzlingly. "Don't try that on me" she rolled her eyes.

Danny kept on smiling at her.

"Well are you okay!" she asked.

Danny grinned even wider, keeping his eyes on Nicole as she turned around sighing before she turned back to face them.

Mac Taylor walked over to join them, some male instinct keeping him from standing too close to Nicole who, in a word, fumed. He held a heavy crime scene kit in one hand.

"How you guys doin?" Mac asked them both. As he turned to look at Danny, Danny looked at him without moving himself too much. "My arms broken again" he said.

"How bad is it?" Mac asked, stepping over and raising the ice pack.

Danny hissed between his teeth, his whole body tensing. "Bad, but not as bad as it was"

"It's probably fractured as opposed to broken" Jim the paramedic told them "We're gonna need to x-ray it but he should be able to work. And the doctors gonna want to look at his head, but he didn't lose consciousness and he's lucid and coherent so I think its just going to be a bad bump and maybe some stitches" the man pressed the gauze he held to the cut.

"Will he be able to work?" Mac asked, knowing that for this case, Danny would come into the lab every day until _he_ died or Melvin was caught, which ever came first.

"If he wants but his arm is going to be no good to him for a while. And he's probably going to be given some pain killers so it depends how stoned he gets" Jim explained.

"I'll be at work Mac" Danny stated.

"What about this one?" Mac half smiled as he pointed at Mike.

"His hand is cut up and he'll need stitches, but he'll live, he should be fine" Jim shrugged.

"How do you two feel about what happened?" Mac asked.

"I don't regret it. We know who he is now and we got him scared. Maybe we shoulda waited for back up but it's done now" Danny said.

Mike nodded in agreement. "If we woulda waited, or gone back to the lab, he might've gone out and he'd be in the wind now"

"He's already in the wind, he got away" Nicole snapped.

"He might have gotten away but the stuff he left behind is priceless. He left his computer, a mountain of evidence. We had a couple of computer techs in there a minute ago, they think we might be able to track over three dozen more paedophiles based on e-mails on Melvin's computer…he didn't have time to purge anything…if they would have waited, he might have realised how close we where getting to him and panicked, destroyed everything." Mac said, surprising the three younger detectives. "Next time, be more careful, but other wise, good job" Mac nodded.

Danny smiled as Mike pulled tongues at Nicole, who glared back.

"I'll take these two to the hospital and get em back to you as soon as possible" Jim said "You might want to send somebody to pick them up"

"No we'll be fine just send a couple uniforms with a car in case you need to send us out"

The pair climbed into the back of the ambulance and Mac and Nicole turned away and walked back into the apartment building, side stepping uniformed police officers and frustrated residents. One woman stood in the door way of her apartment, a young girl who bore a remarkable resemblance to Lily Carter standing in front of her. The woman had her arms on the girl shoulders, the child with her hands over her mothers.

"Everything okay ma'am?" Mac stepped toward the pair, smiling down at the girl who smiled shyly back.

"Is it true that it was Melvin who…hurt that other little girl?" The woman asked, her hands gripping her daughters shoulders.

"I can't release that information ma'am" Mac grimaced.

"Please?" the woman leaned forward slightly.

"Ma'am do you think Melvin may have done something?" Mac asked, glancing briefly at the girl.

"No, I never left her alone with him, I just…I need to know!" The mother stroked her daughters hair distractedly.

"Maybe you should send her inside" Mac nodded to the girl.

"Missie go play in your room" The woman said almost automatically.

The girl shrugged and skipped into the apartment.

"My detectives discovered some…items, at a crime scene that led them to believe that Mr Booth may have been involved in the disappearance of Lily Carter. Two detectives came to talk to Mr Booth, Melvin, and his behaviour led them to believe he may be a suspect. They entered his apartment and he attacked them both and fled, and we discovered some…media items, magazines and video tapes that led us to the realization that he is the person who abducted and killed Lily" Mac said formally, and slowly, thinking about every word he said.

Normally he wouldn't have revealed anything about a case or suspect like this, but there was a quiet desperation in the woman's eyes that he couldn't ignore. He had worded his statement as carefully as he had so that if the woman went to the media with what he had said, no one could find fault with what had happened. Considering the nature of the case, he doubted any one would criticise what Danny and Mike had done, but he didn't want to risk it. Amazingly, there where reporters in the world who would twist the situation around to make it look as the detectives had somehow victimised Melvin, falsely accused him of the crime.

The woman nodded slowly. "So you think he'll come back here?" she asked.

"I doubt it ma'am. We're going to have cops watching the place until he's caught, coming back would be a very stupid thing for him to do" Mac assured her "Meanwhile, keep your daughter close just in case, and if you think of anything that you might know about Melvin, something that might help us find him, don't hesitate to call us" Mac handed her a card.

She took it, thanked him and closed her door.

Nicole watched her go. "She looked scared…you think she wasn't telling us something? I hate to say it but that little girl was the spitting image of Lily"

"Yeah, I saw that. But I get the feeling she would have said something" Mac turned away from the door.

They walked back to the apartment, watching the teams of lab techs carry out various boxes and bags. They had photographed everything in the apartment and collected anything they thought they might need for Lily's case. Now it was a case of cataloguing everything in the apartment and sending it off to the relevant squads within the police department.

A young, bespectacled computer tech walked over to Mac smiling at Nicole as she stuck out her hand to shake. Nicole took the offered hand and shook it, squeezing it warmly as the petite girl nodded to Mac and looked back at Nicole "Marta Coulson" she said by way of introduction. "You're De Rossi right, the British one?" she asked.

Nicole smiled at her, "Yeah, that's me, Beatles country…Liverpool in England, Cavern Walks, all of that" Nicole said, getting out of the way before Marta asked the questions which she inevitably would.

Marta grinned and glanced around. "Mike and Danny got their asses kicked right?" she looked up at Mac.

Mac couldn't help but smile back "Not exactly but they got hurt" he told her.

"Well make sure and tell em well done, we hit the jackpot in there! Sick stuff but damned useful" she nodded as she spoke.

"I already did" Mac assured her "but what I want to know now is, can we use any of that stuff to find out where Melvin might have gone" he said pointedly.

Marta pushed her glasses up on her nose and shrugged. "That's probably up to you guys, so far what I've seen is all porn stuff, not much personal junk 'cept for the magazines. And that second bedroom" she pursed her lips grimly.

Mac nodded. The Second Bedroom was already becoming infamous, the words spoken in angrily hushed tones amongst the officers and investigators. Even hearing the words sent a chill down Mac's spine and he saw Nicole glance away briefly toward the apartment door. "I was just headed there" Mac told Marta who looked, almost fearfully, over her shoulder back at the open doorway.

"I don't know what I would rather do, stick around here with you guys or head back to the lab and trawl through this…" she waved a hand at the computer tower a tech was carrying past. "In fact, I don't want to do either…I want to go home and scrub my self until my skin flakes off" she shuddered.

"I know what you mean, I never feel really clean on a case like this" Nicole raised a hand and seemed to be about to chew a well manicured nail when her cell phone rang. She grabbed it and flicked it open. "Text message" She told Marta and Mac, pressing the 'open' button on her phone. She read the message and laughed quietly.

"What is it?" Marta leaned over to see.

"Mike. He wrote 'Don't use my absence as an excuse to bite your nails, remember, scabby nails do not a lady become'" she told them. "How the hell does he know?" she shook her head amazedly.

"That's a little freaky" Marta put in.

Mac frowned slightly and nodded in agreement. He glanced at Marta "Marta you don't have to go through all of that crap if you really cant handle it, I mean isn't there a mathematical side to this stuff, codes or something, have a look at all that and don't soil your eyes" he said.

Marta nodded slightly and walked away.

"You want to come see the Second Bedroom?" Mac turned to Nicole as she put her phone back on her belt.

"I'd rather go and find Melvin and boil him in acid but…" Nicole smiled grimly.

They walked through the apartment to the Second Bedroom which was as yet untouched by the techs. Mac pulled on a pair of rubber gloves as he surveyed the small room. Danny had told him about it not long after Mac had first arrived at the scene. Danny, on the look out for Melvin, had not really registered what was in the room on his original search, only recalling it when he had been showing Mac around. Danny had pushed the door open without looking in at what it held.

Mac now stood in the room. It was a child's bedroom, a little girl's room with pink and purple walls. The bed had one of those princess canvasses, all gossamer lace and drapes that could be pulled around the bed. There was a small chest of drawers in one corner and on the walls, children's paintings had been pinned up, signed by the 'artists'. There where six, the one nearest to Nicole signed by 'Lily' in curly writing.

The drawing, done mostly in wax crayons seemed to show Lily and a taller, darker haired girl holding hands. It was a child's rendition, all stick figures and disproportionate limbs but it was still obvious to both Mac and Nicole that the dark haired figure was another child. "This girls' in another picture" Nicole pointed to another drawing, signed by a girl named Julia.

"Yeah…that's odd" Mac stepped over to her "You think she's…I don't know another abused little girl? Some one Melvin brings in?" he asked "We know that there are…brothels for kidnapped kids, maybe he calls this girl in?" he suggested.

Nicole shook her head slowly. "I don't know…children are like mirrors, they draw what they see, wouldn't a little girl who had been abused like that be reluctant to be friendly with a new girl?" Nicole asked. "I mean I know abused children are sometimes overly friendly with men or women resembling their abusers but how do they act with other children?"

"That's true…then who is she? I mean I would say that 'she's' maybe two different girls, individual friends to both Lily and Julia but look, in both drawings the girl has pigtails with blue ribbons. It's the same girl, so who is she?" Mac mused out loud.

"Would you go and see if this girl turns up in any of those pictures out there?" Mac turned to Nicole.

"Sure" she said and walked out of the room.

Mac scoured the room, collecting what he found. There was something about the room that made him curse. There where hairs, but not many. Mac wondered if the room had been cleaned. He leaned over the sheets of the bed and sniffed slightly.

"What are you doing?" Nicole asked as she walked back into the room.

"It smells like lemons, like the sheets have been washed. This room has been scrubbed top to bottom, look at the top of the chest of drawers, barely a speck of dust on it. It's weird, the guy leaves all those magazines out there in the open but cleans this room?" he shook his head.

"Well there where some boxes that looked pretty well used, and those video's could only be obviously child porn if you knew what you where looking for. Probably he stores the magazines while visitors are around and…have you ever asked to watch any ones home video's? The irony is that people are afraid to ask in case people think it's inappropriate!" Nicole told him.

"Oh and we haven't found any pictures of that girl" she finished.

"Damn" Mac muttered. "Well I'll stick around here and see what else I can find in here, he might have missed something in his spring cleaning, I'll have to stick around for a while" he shrugged "Will you call and ask Aiden to come over here?" He asked.

"Of course, and I'll tell the guys outside to look for more photo's of that girl" she left the room again.

"Thanks" Mac called after her. He looked around the room again and shuddered at the thought of what had been done there.

Danny and Mike where standing in front of the slightly beaten door, waiting for the resident to open it. They had been to the hospital and gone back to the lab in the time it had taken Mac to fully examine the Second Bedroom, and now they stood in front of a new apartment. Although it was already six in the evening, the building was mostly quiet, the parents and children subdued by an entire day, at school, at work, in the news, dedicated to the story of Lily Carter, assemblies and talks being held in the schools to remind the students of Stranger Danger, many offices and places of business allowing employees with children to go home early.

The apartment was the home of two very important people. Both the ex wife of Melvin Booth and the couples eight year old daughter Chrissie. At around the same time that Stella Bonasera had found the address for Melvin's wife Rachel, a woman at dispatch had paged Danny to tell him that she had just gotten a call from someone saying they needed to talk to the detectives involved in Lily's case. Mike and Danny where the only two detectives who wheren't doing anything and so had taken the call. It matched the former Rachel Booths address. So Danny and Mike now stood outside the apartment, trying to decide if they looked too beaten up to be there.

Mike had changed his shirt but his hand was wrapped in a thick bandage. Danny had a fresh plaster cast and the blow to his head had left him with a bump and four stitches. The stitches and bump where hidden under the woolly hat Danny wore to protect against the still heavy rain, but he had a bruise that ran from under the hat to the corner of his eye. It almost looked like make up except it was an unnatural shade of purple. He had changed into dark jeans and a dark baseball jersey, the only clean clothes left in his locker at the lab. Even with his badge clipped to his hip in plain sight he looked slightly too casual but there was nothing to be done.

The door swung open suddenly making them both jump and an attractive, dark haired woman stared at them, wide eyed "What!" she asked, sounding as if she had been caught in the middle of something.

"Mrs Booth, we're from the police, we got a call" Danny said, smiling politely, showing her his badge and ID as she eyed his clothes dubiously.

"Its Ms Baker, come in I guess" she said, almost reluctantly.

They walked into the apartment and looked around, casing the rooms they could see. There was a small kitchenette, a living room and a corridor which presumably led to the bedrooms and bathrooms. A little girl, Chrissie, sat on the couch in the living room, her face pale and streaked with tears.

"Ms Baker you know we're also here about your ex husband, you might want to send her to her room?" Mike suggested.

"No, she's the one you need to talk to" Rachel Baker said sadly. "Chrissie come tell these cops what you told me sweetie" the woman held her hand out to the girl.

Chrissie, whose hair was pulled up into pigtails and tied with two shiny blue ribbons, stood obediently and walked over to her mother, gripping the woman's hand tightly.

"Hi Chrissie, My name is Danny and this is Mike" Danny crouched down in front of the girl.

"Hi" she said quietly.

"Your mom said you want to talk to us about Lily?" he asked her gently.

Chrissie nodded, her eyes filling with tears again.

"Why don't we go sit down" he suggested.

Chrissie sat on the couch while Danny took the armchair. Mike and Rachel went into the kitchen and she began to brew coffee.

"So just start from the beginning okay?" Danny smiled kindly.

"My mom and daddy are divorced and I spend some weekends with my daddy. One time, almost a year ago, I remember because it was near my birthday, he took me to this park and told me to play with this little blonde haired girl. She was just a little kid, like only maybe five but daddy told me he wanted to meet her so I brought her over to him and he gave her a candy. The she started getting sleepy and she couldn't remember where her mommy was so my daddy put her in our car and said we would take her to his place until she felt better. But when we got there it was time for me to go home so he put her in the bed I usually sleep in and told me he's take her home after, when she was awake. But he said not to tell mom or anyone because people would get all weird about it, and he was right, I guess. So then I never saw that little girl again and I guessed he must took her home.

"Then a couple months later it happened again, and again after that and again, and then the other day…the little girl was Lily. But it was different, he told me to go into this little clearing and to give Lily the candy. He had practically made me hide before then, when this boy came out of the clearing, so I was happy I could play. I gave her the candy, he only gave me one to give, none for me, and when we where playing and she got sleepy I yelled for him and he came in and tried to pick her up but she crawled in that icky cave and was crying and makin a fuss so when we where walking away daddy said we had to hurry because she might be sick and his magazine tore and then we went home. And we got there and it was time for me to go home again but mom had left a message on the answering machine saying she wouldn't be at home till late so I had to stay with daddy for longer and Lily woke up and I played with her and she started saying she wanted to go home and he was saying he would take her later and told me to keep her calm and quiet and then it was time for me to go and daddy said that this time it was super important that I didn't tell anybody about her so I wasn't gonna cos he swore he would take her home, he left her sleeping in the apartment cos he gave us candy again and she fell asleep but then I saw her on the news today and…" the girl trailed off again, sobbing " They said at school that we had to be careful of strangers because a little girl got killed by a Bad Man, and they had a picture of Lily and the whole day today at school was about stranger danger and how to be safe and they even let everybody out early and I realised that she was the same Lily from the park, and daddy is a Bad Man and I helped him!" she wept.

Danny sat back in his seat in a state of shock. The killer had used his own daughter to lure these children, using her love for him to feed his own sick needs.

"Sweetheart, has your daddy ever…touched you in a way that made you feel uncomfortable? Has he ever touched under your clothes?" Danny asked as gently as he could.

"No!" the girl stated, firmly enough that Danny believed her. It made sense, the guy used his kid to lure his new victims because he didn't view her in that way. He would probably even get offended if confronted about molesting his own flesh and blood.

"Daddy isn't really a Bad Man is he!" Chrissie looked up at him suddenly and Danny hesitated.

He couldn't tell her yes because it would crush her, both realizing what her father had done, and realizing that she had helped, even if she had been unaware of it at the time.

"We need to find your dad to ask him some questions. Do you know of anywhere he might have gone to?" Danny half lied, hoping the swift change of subject would distract her.

"Not really, I only ever went to his house and then went out where ever he wanted to take me" she shrugged apologetically.

"That's great honey, you've been a real big help" Danny forced himself to smile at the girl while his brain conjured up a million different ways to harm Melvin.

"Okay" Chrissie said glumly "Can I go now?" she looked up at him.

"Sure" he smiled again and the child slumped away to the far side of the room. She sat down at a table that stood beside the window and began idly drawing on a sheet of paper.

Danny walked back over to the kitchen and accepted the mug of coffee that Rachel Booth had poured for him.

"Did Mel do that to you?" she waved a hand at the two detectives injuries, her voice tight and clipped as if she was restraining some great emotion.

"Um, yeah, we went to his apartment and he wasn't happy to have us there" Mike said gently.

"I didn't divorce him because of this" she snapped "I never thought he could…do something like this…I mean, I knew there was something he wanted…in the bedroom that I couldn't provide but I thought it was just something kinky maybe…then his behaviour, sneaking around, going out late, I thought he was having an affair. I couldn't prove it but I confronted him, I asked him if he was seeing some one else and he admitted it, he said that she was giving him what he didn't want to ask me for. Can you believe I thought it was sweet? I pitied him for being so sexually repressed and I didn't hate him for it, I really didn't. We agreed that it would be better for us to split up because he wasn't happy and that made me miserable and we didn't want it to pass on to Chrissie…we thought it might damage her" she scoffed, shaking her head bitterly. "How is she going to get through this? How do you…"her voice dropped to a hoarse whisper "How do you counsel a child through the fact that her father used her to trap children that he then raped and murdered!" she started to cry silently, tears rolling down her cheeks even though her voice remained low and level "I hate him for this, I will never forgive him…oh god, to think I let him touch me. I kept letting her go over there. I should have known something was going on!" she hissed at them.

"Ma'am, you husband is an expert at hiding his true nature, he brainwashed your daughter into lying for him, he is very good at not leaving any evidence behind. He didn't even exactly lie to you, you asked him if he was seeing other women and he told you yes, which was…more or less true" Mike leaned forward, keeping his own voice low "You can not blame your self for this" he stated.

"We can put you in touch with expert councillors for you and your daughter" Danny told her "the city will pay for them"

She nodded slowly. "Thank you" she whispered "But do you honestly think it will help her?" she looked over at Chrissie who was staring despondently out of the window.

"Just keep telling her none of this was her fault. Over and over again reassure her that she's not to blame for what happened to these girls" Danny said "That's all you can do"

Rachel nodded and wiped at her eyes, taking a deep breath that seemed to calm her from the inside out. "Okay" she said, more to herself than anyone else.

"Ma'am do _you_ know anywhere Melvin might have gone?" Mike asked.

"No. Since the divorce I really don't know what he does, we agreed we would only interfere if we thought it would be bad for Chrissie. Jesus Christ" she looked shocked "I guess this qualifies" she took a long draught of her own coffee. "Sorry" she wiped at a drip that ran down her chin "I don't drink or smoke so this is my stress reliever"

"You really think that much coffee will _lower_ your stress level?" Danny raised an eyebrow and Rachel responded with a ghost of a smile.

"No, but at least this cant hurt my kid"

Danny nodded in agreement, reaching over to squeeze her shoulder reassuringly. "This will be okay, we'll catch him. You'll call us if he contacts you at all?" he asked her.

Rachel nodded and walked over to her daughter, pulling the girl into a bear hug as Mike and Danny let them selves out.

They both paused out side, regarding each other in total shock. "Sick _fuck_" Mike growled "I swear to God when I get my hands on this scum bag…" he shook his head.

Danny pulled off his glasses and rubbed his eyes exhaustedly, taking long sighing breaths. "My dad did that, the Tanglewoods did that" he said quietly "They used me like that…not like _that_" he waved a hand at the closed apartment door "but they talked me into helping them commit crimes, I was just a little kid, didn't know what I was doin. When I got older I knew, but til I became a cop I didn't see how I'd been used ya know?" he admitted "How can he use his little girl like that? Of course we're talking about a guy who see's children as sexual objects so we're not exactly in the realm of normal here" he snapped.

"I need a drink" Mike said wearily "But more'n that I need to catch this guy and have twenty minutes alone with him, and access to a blowtorch" he stated with total sincerity.

"Preachin to the choir" Danny agreed as they walked to the elevator.

Mac leaned over the duvet cover, using a torch to highlight what he thought was a shadow- it was, and Mac sighed heavily as he realised that once again he had been unable to find anything.

"This ass hole didn't just clean these sheets, he went over them with a lint brush!" he spat. "There is nothing usable here, nothing that can tell us where he might have gone" he shook his head, glancing up as Danny and Mike walked back in to the lab.

Nicole, who had been sitting at the computer, glanced over and half smiled at the pair. "How are you feeling?" she asked them both.

"Sick" Mike said simply.

They told Mac and Nicole what the girl had said, about how her father had used her.

Nicole swore loud and long, at one point slipping into Italian. Danny stared at her open mouthed.

"What?" she frowned at him.

"Just…wow, I didn't know girls got taught words like that" he stated.

"What words?" Mike looked between the two.

"I…can't repeat em" Danny admitted, raising an eyebrow at Nicole who shrugged.

"So you guys get anything here?" Mike asked, changing the subject smoothly.

"Nothing. This S.O.B went over this room with a fine tooth comb, there's literally nothing for us here" Mac stated, his voice empty and blank. "its almost as if he doesn't do the worst of it there"

Stella Bonasera walked in to the lab to join them, sighing the same as Mac had done.

"Okay from her dress, I found one type of damp fungus that I didn't find in the clearing that may or may not be unique, it's still in the lab. Other than that, I got nothing" she snapped, her voice strained and tired.

"God Damn it" Danny banged his good hand on the table. "He's not gonna slip up is he?" he looked around the room at the glum faces.

Don Flack ran into the room panting for breath and looked around the room. "He got another one, Melvin…he grabbed another little girl"

Wow it took me way longer to finish that than I thought it would, I had such bad writers block! I promise I will try and get the next part done as quickly as possible so Read and Review super fast because I find the reviews incredibly helpful!


	9. Time

Danny was standing at the edge of the crime scene, his eyes wide behind his rimless glasses, his good hand hanging at his side, flexing and un-flexing. His injured arm was tucked under his jacket, hugged close to him. He was gritting his teeth and nodding his head rapidly too, and Mac was eying him closely as he walked over.

"You're either pissed or in a lot of pain" Mac stated.

"So?" Danny asked without looking at him.

"Did the doctor give you painkillers for your arm?" Mac pointed to Danny's arm where the younger CSI was almost pressing it into his body.

"Yes" Danny answered, short and sharp, clearly in pain.

"Have you taken any?" Mac spoke in a slightly condescending tone, feeling as always with Danny that he was dealing with a stubborn kid. Not that he thought Danny was childish but when he was like this, in this type of mood, Mac felt like the only way to get through was to talk down to him.

"They make me foggy" Danny told him.

"Foggy?" Mac frowned.

"My head isn't clear when I take 'em, I can't think clear, I lose track of things" Danny explained irritably.

"Tia says that when you're doped you're adorable" Mac allowed himself a half smile as Danny finally looked at him.

"Tia said that?" Danny asked.

"Yup"

"I'll take one later, I just need to be clear for this" Danny nodded to the scene.

It was a quiet street outside a pleasant, new looking apartment building. Tracy Woods was ten years old but looked a lot younger due mainly to genetics, her mother was petite too, just about five feet tall. Tracy could easily pass for six or seven years old. She had been in the rec centre of her apartment building, an enclosed arcade built next the building itself so parents didn't have to worry that their children where walking the streets to go to an arcade. Tracy had been with friends playing the games, buying snacks from the machines, their regular nightly practice. The rec room was attended by two security guards, hired by the tenants of the building from a security company run by ex cops. Tracy and her friends had left the rec room to walk home, only having to travel a dozen or so feet from the rec room to the apartment building, all of the girls had keys and had let them selves into the main building, only for Tracy to dart back out into the road/walkway to retrieve her dropped purse. Melvin, driving a car that had already been reported as stolen had swung the vehicle around next to the walk way which acted as an entrance to a small residents parking lot, and dragged Tracy into his car. There where bright lights on both the rec room and the main building, enough that Tracy's friends had gotten a clear look at Melvin when he grabbed Tracy, enough to describe him and confirm it was him from a photo line up.

Mac nodded "We've got uniforms looking for the car…and we found his stash of sedatives so she wont be asleep. People are looking for Melvin and we've taken out an amber alert, so Tracy's face is splashed across every new channel in the state" Mac was speaking as much for his own assurance as Danny's. "There's an APB out on the car, but chances are he'll dump it as soon as he gets the opportunity, but with all the publicity on this case some ones bound to see em" they watched as Aiden and Stella talked to a group of mothers just outside the apartment building. Nicole was standing in front of a the security guards from the rec centre, taking their statements- they had already told Mac that they had watched the girls get to the building, seen them go in, but Nicole was going over the statement again to clarify some things, Flack had jumped in a car with a uniform and was off patrolling the city. Mike was in the jeep nearby, talking rapidly into a walkie talkie, a map of the city laid out in front of him. He had called Melvin's attorney on the way over to the scene and brow beaten the man into checking into his clients properties, hoping to find some other location Melvin's wife didn't know about. Mike opened the door to his jeep and leaned out awkwardly "He has a house!" he yelled.

Mac and Danny jogged over, frowning "What?" Mac asked as they both climbed into the jeep to escape the rain.

"Melvin bought a house 'bout two months ago, but he bought it under a business name, Interhome designs, an internal design company. He uses the house as offices and show rooms, each room done up in a particular style or theme, you know modern or feng shui or Victorian? The house is one of only a dozen on that block that _isn't_ being torn down in two months to make way for a new renewal scheme, the city wants to put a public garden in…half a dozen houses are gonna be used to house some of the builders and gardeners both during and after construction, Melvin's house got saved, a long with some elderly residents who don't wanna move, after an extensive campaign." Mike explained.

"What makes you sure that's where he would go?" Mac asked even as Mike keyed the ignition and honked the horn, signalling Nicole to come over which she did.

She too climbed in out of the rain.

"The lawyer I talked to, he put me through to the bank and insurance company Melvin uses, who are one and the same by the way and, remember how we thought the way we found Lily mighta meant something? Well that building? That's where the bank is based. And two weeks ago, they refused to give Melvin another loan to expand his business- I talked to Sheldon too, he told me that the last cases, the other little girls Melvin killed? They where all randomly dumped, and at the time they where abducted and killed, I checked, Melvin was making a comfortable living. Now though, Melvin is gonna have to fold his little company…he dumped her in that lot because he's angry at the bank…but he still owns the house" Mike looked around at them all "But like I said, its not under his name so it wouldn't immediately show up in his paper work! It's practically a secret hideout" Mike shrugged " We know he takes them back to his place, but there are things that don't fit…what if he takes them to this house to kill them? What if what ever it is he shows them is there?" Mike asked the whole car.

Mac still looked doubtful "But if we go in there with back up and we're wrong its guys who coulda been out looking for his car getting pulled off the streets for nothing" he reminded them.

Nicole took the notepad Mike had written all his numbers on from his hands and pulled her cell phone from her pocket, dialling the number for Melvin's business. There was a tense pause in the car then Nicole swore quietly and paused again "Hi, I guess you're not in, a girlfriend told me you do interior decorating and I'm looking to get my dining room redone but I'll just call earlier tomorrow, thanks, bye" she said in an actually pretty good faux American accent. "machine" she explained as she clicked the phone off "but if he's there and not just not picking up, leaving a message makes it seem like its just a customer calling, not a cop tryna see if he's in" she told them. She paused, staring at her phone "I say he's there" she looked around at them.

Danny nodded in agreement and Mac paused briefly before nodding to and looking over at Mike.

"Go" Mac told the young detective.

Mike pulled up near Aiden and Stella and the younger CSI jogged over "We're gonna check out a possible location, Mike's gonna call Don in, do you have any samples?" He asked.

"There are non to have, he grabbed her and ran without ever leavin the car" Aiden told them.

"Okay, you and Stella follow behind" Mac stated and Aiden ran to get Stella.

Mike stepped on the accelerator and everyone in the car said a silent prayer that they where right.

* * *

Tracy Woods was furiously biting the ropes tied around her wrist. She had been told all about Lily Carter in school, about how the man had given Lily bad sweets. This guy hadn't given her sweets but she knew what coincidences where and knew that her being grabbed, wasn't one, this was the same guy.

The man who had tied her up and thrown her so roughly into the back of his car had red hair like it said on the news, and was tall and bulky like they said too. He had scratches on his face and a bald patch over one of his ears and seemed madder than anyone Tracy had ever seen, and that included her daddy that time when her mom had accidentally put bleach in with all his work shirts. Eventually daddy had seen the funny side and calmed down, but Tracy didn't think this man would calm down anytime soon. She had cried in the car, sobbed and screamed for her mom and dad even though the man had told her to be quiet. He had driven her around a lot, making her lay down on the floor, then they had driven into some kind of garage. He had carried her into a house then down into a basement, sitting her down on the floor and leaving her. That had been about a half hour ago and he still hadn't come back, so Tracy had gotten to her feet and wandered around the basement, finding a window that she could climb up to and out of if she could get her hands free. She was scared, she felt sick to her stomach and sort of feverish but cold, as if she had a bad flu, but she knew that the man would do terrible things to her and that sitting in the dark and crying to herself wouldn't help her. Tracy had never been a big crier, even if she hurt herself, fell down while she played and skinned a knee, she would never scream for her mom, just go and find her. Crying didn't get you any where she had explained to her mother once when asked why she never got upset. Tracy knew her mom had been proud that Tracy was so grown up when she had said that, but had told Tracy that sometimes it was okay to be upset or afraid. And Tracy was, more afraid than she had ever been, but now more than ever she needed to be a grown up and to get herself out of this basement.

So she chewed the rope, or rather, the tight knot that kept her hands pinned so tightly together that her hands where numb. She had already decided that if the man laid a hand on her she was going to scratch his eyes out, so even if she couldn't free them she needed to loosen the rope and get the feeling back.

It hurt her teeth to chew such tight rope, and her lips where bloody from where her teeth had slipped and clamped down on her lips, but she could feel the rope beginning to loosen up as she chewed. She remembered playing with her brother Jake once, playing Peter Pan. Tracy had pretended to be princess tiger lily, Jake acting as Captain Hook. They didn't have a Pan so Tracy had had to free herself from the ropes Jake had tied her up with. Tracy had learned that tight knots got easier to loosen if you wet them, so as she chewed, she spat on the knot, working the liquid in with her teeth. On of the loops of the knot came loose enough that Tracy pulled at it, twisted her arms around, and actually felt the rope begin to give a little under. She flexed still numb hands as much as she could and felt the numbness begin to recede enough that she could move them more. She attacked another loop of the knot, unable to find any specific end piece to work on, and began to tug at that, wincing as she slipped again and her teeth clacked together so hard she thought she might have cracked them. She took a second to check but the pain faded and she went back to work, freezing when she heard the thump of someone walking over head. The footsteps, it seemed to Tracy, where of someone pacing around the house. The man who had taken her, who she remembered from the news was called Melvin, had been stomping around since he dropped her down here, his path taking him over head every couple of minutes, Tracy had counted. At one point she had thought she heard the phone ring but she couldn't be sure.

The sounds passed again and Tracy went back to working on the rope, chewing at it hurriedly. She had a feeling it wouldn't be long before the creep came down for her so she began to flex her wrists at the same time. "Come on!" she muttered through a mouth full of rope, feeling another loop begin to loosen.

She twisted her right wrist awkwardly, painfully, feeling the rope dig into her skin, but the more she moved it, the looser the bonds became. With one more twist her right hand slid free and she fell back as the tension she had been putting on the rope suddenly vanished. "yes!" she hissed.

Tracy stood. Pausing to see if she could tell where Melvin was. She counted up the minutes in her head and realised he hadn't passed over her like he should have. Even as she realised something was wrong the basement door at the top of the stairs creaked open. Tracy hesitated, wondering if she should run or stay and play along until he left again. But then there was the chance he might try something…Tracy slipped her hand back into the loop, grateful that it didn't look as loose as it now was. She sat back down, keeping her hands close to her body as Melvin walked unsteadily down the stairs, carrying a tray of food.

There where two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, a plastic cup of soda and an banana split, freshly made by the looks of it. The sandwich was on one of those paper plates you get at parties, Tracy noticed, a fancy looking one with some kind of design drawn on.

"I thought you might be hungry?" Melvin smiled awkwardly at her as he put the tray down.

Tracy raised an eyebrow at him. He must of thought she was stupid. "You're the guy who killed Lily Carter, its on the TV, I'm not eating anything you give me" she stated.

Melvin sat down cross legged and picked up one of the sandwiches "Are you sure you don't want to eat? I make the best PB and J in the world, my daughter tells me so!" he grinned again, ignoring her other comments.

"You have a kid? Do you molester her too?" Tracy sneered at him.

"What? That's a terrible thing to say, who taught a nice little girl like you to say such awful things!" Melvin frowned "Eat your dinner and I'll forgive you" he tried to be nice again.

Tracy looked at the glass bowl the banana split came in and had an idea.

"You have to leave" she stated "You get out or I'm not eating a thing"

Melvin stared at her and she could see his face tighten as he tried to keep from getting angry with her. "If stay we could talk about some things" he suggested.

"What could you and me have to talk about?" Tracy asked doubtfully.

"Lots of things. What you like to do for fun, who your best friends are, what games you like to play, anything you want!" Melvin took another bite of his sandwich.

"I want to talk about Lily Carter" Tracy said and Melvin's smile faded as he finished his bite, swallowing painfully.

"That's not appropriate conversation over dinner. Hurry up and eat, I made that ice cream special for you so you don't eat it all before it melts" he pushed the tray toward her.

"Get out and I'll eat, I'll yell when I'm done" Tracy shrugged, looking away as if she was bored, but inside she felt like her stomach was trying to crawl up her throat.

Melvin stared at her for a long minute, then took his plate and stomped up the stairs and out of the basement.

Tracy waited for a minute, finally hearing the thump of him walking away from the door, then slid her hands free again.

She grabbed the tray and carried to over to a far corner, taking everything off it. The tray was light, made of a thin board of wood, the plastic cup and paper plate where useless but the glass bowl would definitely be useful.

Tracy turned the bowl upside down on the ground then put the tray over it. She jumped on the tray with both feet and heard a crunch as the bowl broke. Ice cream and banana slices oozed out from under the tray but Tracy ignored them as she moved the wood and found the longest shard of glass she could. It hurt to grip it in her bare hand so Tracy slid the long sleeve of her sweater down over her hand then gripped the shard in her now covered hand. It didn't hurt to hold the glass tightly and Tracy grinned; now she had a knife.

* * *

Mike was doing a very good impression of a stunt driver as he weaved through the evening traffic, ignoring the honks of protest form other drivers as he overtook, cut up, cut off, and generally broke almost every road rule that he could think of as he broke it. As they sped through the rain, everyone proposed plans of how to get into the house if it turned out that Melvin was in fact there. Nicole and Danny came up with one that would work to get some one into the house, and would also provide a distraction if need be- Nicole would simply ring the doorbell claiming to be a potential customer who heard about the themed rooms from a friend and decided to stop by on a whim since she was in the neighbourhood visiting friends anyway. If he was there, she would try and get him to let her in while Danny, being the smallest, would sneak around back and try and get into the basement through any kind of window or entrance there. They had already figured that with every room in the house as a show room, the basement would be the most likely place to store a kid. The plan worked two ways-if Nicole could get in then they had two armed police officers inside the house with two more outside and back up on the way. If not, it still left at least one cop in the house with back up on the way and three ready to rush in if need be.

"Are we sure that having some one knock and claim to be a buyer isn't gonna set off any alarms since se just called him posing as a buyer?" Mike looked at Danny and Nicole in the rearview.

"Even If he doesn't let me in, if Danny can get into the basement and find Tracy, its better than nothing" Nicole shrugged. They pulled over so Danny could slip out, a few houses up, Nicole could drive and Mac and Mike could hide in the passenger seat so it seemed like Nicole was alone.

Nicole adjusted her hair and make up enough so it seemed she was really was who she claimed to be, watching carefully as Danny crouched beside the jeep. She swung the vehicle around slowly driving up to Melvin's house. Danny was jogging along side and as she pulled the car across the street to park outside Melvin's, Danny dropped back and ducked behind the neighbours hedge. Danny dropped into a low crouch and sprinted up the driveway, disappearing behind the house.

Nicole took a big deep breath, then blew all the air out. "You'll do good" she heard Mike whisper form behind her and she climbed out of the jeep, running full pelt to the porch, one hand held above her head as a less than adequate shield from the rain.

She rapped on the door, plastering a smile onto her face as she wiped her jacket down, trying to seem like a regular Jane nobody who had gotten caught in a storm.

There was no answer to Nicole knocked again, this time calling out "Hello? Is this Interhomes? I called a little earlier, I'm in the area visiting friends and I hoped I might catch you in!" she yelled, hoping she sounded whiny and desperate enough that he would just open up. "Oh please be in, hello!" she called as she knocked again.

* * *

Danny slid feet first into the basement, feeling a solid surface beneath him and dropping into a crouch. He didn't have his gun drawn because with his shooting arm re injured, he had one free hand and he had been using that to get himself through the window.

"Tracy?" he hissed into the darkness that filled the basement, closing the basement window on the sounds of what had become a full blown storm a few minutes ago.

No one answered so Danny called again, lowering himself to the floor. He pulled a small torch from clip on his belt and clipped it on, casting the beam quickly around the room. There was no Tracy, but in one corner there was a small mess, what looked like spilled ice cream and shards of glass. The pattern of the glass told Danny that the…bowl he surmised, had been crushed, not dropped and he wondered if Tracy had been passed out on top of the bowl or, he looked more closely at the broken glass, noting the missing shard, fashioned a weapon. "Good girl" he murmured, wondering where she must have gone.

He climbed the stairs almost silently, moving like a cat, stepping on the very edges of the steps so as to avoid making too much noise, and checked the basement door. It opened and he pushed it forward a half inch. It didn't creak so Danny put the torch away and drew his gun. He pushed the door again slowly, another half inch, repeating the slow process until he heard the first inkling of a creak. Then he stopped and simply peered out. By listening hard he could just make out Nicole's voice as she prattled on about wall papers and paint, speaking almost every thought that came to her mind to keep Melvin at the door. Danny was thin enough that he could step into the small, neat kitchen without having to open the door any further and push the door closed behind him. He glanced around and saw a staircase, heading straight foe it and skipping up it with that same nimble cat speed as before.

He came to the first floor landing and paused, but the conversation from the car came back to him – all the rooms where show rooms, so he wouldn't put a kid in one. Danny looked up, spotting a tell tale panel in the ceiling up ahead, the trap door for the attic. He reached up, rising onto his tip toes to snatch the cord and pulled it toward himself, his gun raised to shoot Melvin if the ladder came down loud. It slid down easily with barely a bump as it touched the floor which was concealed by a rumble of thunder. Danny climbed the ladder hurriedly, knowing Nicole could only conceivably keep up her lie for so long, and reluctantly holstered his gun as in order to pull himself into the attic.

"Tracy?" he repeated.

"Here!" came a high, but calm voice.

Danny turned and saw the girl standing near the window, a tangle of ropes wrapped around one wrist, a shard of glass clutched in her hand. "Tracy I'm a cop, I need you to come over here okay?" Danny asked, holding up his badge for her to see.

"He brought me up here a little while ago, he though I was groggy but I wasn't and he though I was tied up but I wasn't" she motioned to the tangle of ropes "I was gonna go out the window but he brought me up here" Tracy whispered to Danny as she walked over to him.

"Has he hurt you in any way?" Danny hated to ask but it was important that he know in case she was injured or traumatised.

"No, apart from tying my hands too tight" she shrugged "There's a school over there" she said suddenly.

"What?" Danny frowned at her.

"Out the window, there's a school, its right across the street" she told him "I thought it was kinda weird is all" she shrugged again.

Danny crossed the attic quickly and looked out at the school, reading the name on the sign in a lightning flash.

"That's his kid's school" he realised, murmuring it to himself.

Realisation hit Danny so suddenly it almost staggered him. The odd bruise patterns on the little girls bodies, the lack of physical evidence in the bedroom the involvement of his daughter…Danny quickly shone his torch around and saw a smaller version of the bed from Melvin's apartment shoved against the far wall of the attic. Unlike its double, this bed was clearly used unkempt. What could have been a pair of child's underwear had been dropped by the side of the bed. Danny saw it in his minds eye, Melvin took the girls, using his daughter as a lure. He took them back to his regular apartment to placate his daughter and to secure his possession of them, letting them sleep, un harassed in the princess bed there. After wards, when his daughter was gone and whatever circumstances had arisen that made him comfortable, he transported the girls, sleeping or awake, to this house, where the real ordeal began. When he was done with them he brought them over to this window to show them…his daughter. He would show them his daughter at play with her school friends. Danny and Mike had done basic checks on Melvin's wife and daughter and had found that they both lived simple little lives, Rachel, Mel's ex, worked all day while Chrissie was at school. On the weekends Chrissie visited her dad, or not, but _every_ Sunday she attended a fair organised by the PTA of her school along with her mother. She would play with her friends while her mother sold cakes or cookies or raffle tickets. You would be able to see them from this window. Danny held is victims so he could see Chrissie at play…so he could see how they had been betrayed.

Danny shuddered backing away from the window, his eyes feeling hot, heavy with tears. He shook himself back to the present and turned to Tracy.

"We need to get out of here" he stated "But I don't think we can go the way we came"

"Where is he?" Tracy asked, peering toward the open trap door in the floor.

"I have a friend trying to distract him downstairs, but I don't know how long she can keep it up" Danny explained, motioning Tracy toward him. She ran over to him, stepping around the trap door hurriedly.

Danny turned back to the rain beaten window, scanning the edge. There was no visible seam and he cursed, running his fingers over the layer of paint sealing the only safe escape.

"Shit" he spat.

"Maybe this will help?" Tracy held out the shard of glass.

Danny took it, thanking her, and scraped at the paint. Some of it came up but there where layers of it and the whole window had been painted. "Keep at it" he told Tracy, handing her the shard.

He crouched on the floor beside the trap door and leaned over, straining to listen. He could just make out Melvin's voice, sounding as if he was bidding farewell to Nicole. He headed back to Tracy, knowing their time was limited.

"I got a plan but it's dangerous" Danny told her "The next big thunder rumble I'm gonna smash the window and we're gonna head out, okay?" He crouched in front of her.

"We're three storeys up" Tracy stated.

"Yeah but there are trellises on the wall, with vines on em? We can climb down like a ladder" Danny explained "it's the only way out that doesn't take us past Melvin"

"We could just sneak" Tracy looked afraid.

"Yeah, but he might walk away from my friend and be moving around the house and we wouldn't know" Danny pulled his gun from the holster on his hip and checked the safety was on. "Get behind me" he told Tracy.

"Like Satan?" Tracy remarked and Danny shot her a look.

"My aunt used to say it all the time whenever she wanted a cigarette-she was tryna quit" Tracy explained.

"You're not like most kids" Danny chuckled.

"My mom says that. She says I'm too smart for my own good but then she says 'on the plus side, you're too smart for your own good'" Tracy smiled proudly.

She stood behind Danny as he raised his gun, butt first. "Cover your eyes" he reached his broken arm back awkwardly and pulled her slightly closer to his back so that his body shielded her even more. "Don't fart I'm butt level" he heard her mutter.

He laughed nodding his head slightly as he waited for the rumble of thunder he needed so badly. He imagined he could already hear Melvin coming toward them and resisted the urge to just throw caution to the wind and smash the window. The thunder came sudden and loud and he felt Tracy jump behind him.

Danny swung the gun and the window shattered, the sound mostly masked by the thunder which sounded like a rock slide or some kind of great roaring creature. He cursed as one of the jagged edges of glass sliced neatly through his hand but the window fell away, wind and rain sweeping into the room.

Danny leaned out and looked down, seeing that the trellis was easily within reach for both himself and Tracy. He looked out and saw the jeep pulling out of the driveway but only moving a few yards down the street. In the bad weather it was impossible to see the dark coloured vehicle under a copse of trees.

Danny reached back to Tracy, holstering his gun again, knowing he would need his hands free to climb down. A hand that couldn't belong to Tracy gripped his upper arm and he turned around, feeling like a kid caught doing something he wasn't supposed to. Melvin wasn't much bigger than Danny but he was heavy, that kind of solid weight that could be fat but was really muscle. Tracy was crouched in a corner, her hands hidden behind her knees. Danny reached for his gun lightning fast but Melvin butted him, his forehead smacking against Danny's with a thunk that Danny assumed Mac could hear in the jeep.

Danny felt Melvin's hand pull Danny's gun from the holster as he tried to think past the explosion of pain in the centre of his forehead. Danny slid slowly down the wall, holding his hands up to show they where empty, staring up at Melvin. "Melvin-" he started to say.

"Shut up!" Melvin snapped, his voice high, his tone bordering on hysteria. "How did you get in?" he grabbed at his own thinningreddish hair.

"Your security is shit" Danny spat, knowing he should try to talk Melvin down, being distracted by the crawly, filthy feeling on his forehead where Melvin's skin had touched his own.

"You where in my apartment, you went through my things illegally!" Melvin snapped at him, waving the gun uncertainly.

Danny was watching the weapon, very aware that Melvin hadn't touched the safety. Danny risked a glance at Tracy who hadn't moved from her corner but had a coiled look to her, as if she might bolt at any second. Danny saw her eyes flick from Melvin to Danny and twisted his hand so it made a 'stop' signal, like a traffic cop. Tracy nodded minutely, her eyes fixed on Danny's hand for his next signal.

"It wasn't illegal, the magazine cover you left at the park led us straight to you, you sick fuck" Danny sneered.

Melvin kicked him in the leg, not hard enough to do damage but it hurt and Danny kicked back instinctively, his heel catching Melvin's knee. Melvin rewarded him by hitting him with the butt of the gun, knocking his glasses off. Danny silently replaced his glasses as Melvin paced the room. "Mel put that gun down" Danny advised.

"You alone?" Mel asked.

"Yeah" Danny lied, unable to deicide if it was better for Melvin to think it was just him or if he had back up.

Melvin stared at him and Danny knew that the guy believed him and wondered how some one so stupid had gotten away with his crimes for so long.

"So what do I do with you?" Melvin glared at Danny.

Danny shrugged, feeling rain from the open window soaking his hair and the back of his shirt. He shuddered again, from the cold this time more than his fear of Melvin. As long as he kept Melvin distracted Tracy might still be able to get out.

"I can't kill you…I kill a cop…I'm dead" Melvin theorised.

Danny raised an eyebrow and resisted the urge to tell Melvin that as a paedophile and child killer he was already dead but if Melvin thought he didn't need to keep Danny alive he would do away with him and that would leave Tracy all alone. Danny wanted to suggest that Melvin let Tracy and Danny leave but Melvin seemed to have forgotten about Tracy for the time being and Danny preferred things that way.

Melvin walked over to a far, darkened corner and came back with a length of rope and a roll of masking tape. "Hands together" Melvin demanded.

Danny shook his head slowly so Melvin aimed a kick at Danny's raised, broken arm. Danny cried out and pulled his arm toward him, and Melvin, who was surprisingly fast for a large man, swooped in and looped the rope around Danny's good arm, then his broken one, pulling it tight so Danny's hands where tied in front of him.

Danny tried to struggle but Melvin literally sat on him and pinned him down, wrapping the masking tape around his mouth, his whole head. Danny was cursing at him but the tape muffled every word he spat as Melvin pressed the tape tight against his lips. Danny tried to reach for the gun with his bound hands but Melvin held it out of reach and slapped Danny across the face, and open handed strike that left Danny's ear ringing. Melvin grabbed Danny's hair and thumped Danny's head off the floor hard enough to leave Danny dazed and immobilized. Melvin climbed to his feet and strode over to Tracy as Danny fought against the fog in his head.

"No!" he heard Tracy yell "Lemme go!" he twisted awkwardly to see Melvin had gripped Tracy's arm and was dragging her toward the filthy bed.

Tracy's hand swung out and Melvin let her go, clutching at his face. Danny saw the glint of the shard of glass in her hand, and realised Tracy had slashed Melvin with it. Melvin back handed Tracy, sending her crashing to the floor as Danny tried to roll so he could sit up.

"Little bitch!" Melvin barked, "You fuckin' bitch" he grabbed her wrist this time, squeezing until she dropped the shard.

Danny heard a crash that wasn't a rumble of thunder, but was a door being kicked open and realised Nicole, Mike and Mac had come inside.

He kicked at the floor as hard as he could from a prone position, yelling through the tape over his mouth.

Melvin turned to stare at him, confused at his actions. Danny looked at Tracy and thumped his head against the floor, hoping she would get the idea. It took her all of a second to figure it out and she began yelling for help, screaming and stomping her feet like a kid throwing a tantrum. Melvin balked and ran over to Danny, dragging him to his feet a shoving him, hard against the wall. Danny felt his head impact and began to wonder about the long term damage being done with all the head injuries he was enduring inhis increasingly jumbled conciousness.

Melvin scooped Tracy up and carried her to the bed, throwing her down roughly. He still had the gun and pressed it to Tracy's temple, causing her to freeze in her struggling. Melvin looked desperately toward the open hatch, then something came over him, his fearful face twisting into an in human mask. He rounded on Tracy, something in his face making her scream but he clamped his hand over her mouth, dropping the gun, his free hand hovering over her body. Danny pushed off the wall and staggered toward Melvin, looping his bound hands over Melvin's head, around his neck, dragging the man backwards. Tracy immediately swung her legs off the bed and ran to the hatch, yelling "Here, we're up here, the attic, help!" as loud as she could.

Danny was doing his best to choke Melvin but he could only use one arm and Melvin was tucking his head into his shoulders like a turtle, protecting his throat. Danny growled, shouting as Melvin staggered backwards, his bulk pushing Danny back. Danny tried to plant his feet but Melvin was heavier and Danny felt his back hit the wall yet again. He had tucked his own head in though, so avoided another hit on the head. But he felt the air rush out of his lungs and his grip on Melvin slackened enough that Melvin ducked out from the loop of Danny's arms and turned, grabbing the front of Danny's shirt. Danny jabbed at Melvin's eyes and the man spun away. Danny grabbed the tape around his mouth and painfully pulled the whole loop off his head, feeling it pull several strands of hair out, dropping it to the floor.

"Tracy go down there and just keep yellin' tell 'em where we are honey" he told Tracy who immediately disappeared through the hatch way.

Danny saw his gun and ran for it but Melvin was suddenly behind him, dragging him backwards. He snaked an arm around Danny's waist and clamped his other hand over Danny's nose and mouth, squeezing hard. Danny tried to call out but Melvin squeezed harder and Danny's lungs began to ache for oxygen. Danny reached for Melvin's hand trying to pull it away but Melvin had too solid a grip and seemed unconcerned that Danny was scratching the back of his hand bloody.

The ache in Danny's chest became more severe and he felt throbbing behind his eyes.

"Let him go Melvin" One of the Beatles on helium demanded and Danny felt Melvin swing around.

Nicole was kneeling on the floor beside the hatch, her gun held unwaveringly on Melvin. She was soaked through but looked cool and composed. "I said let him go" she stated.

"I'm dead" Melvin told her "They're gonna put me in prison for life and you know what'll happen to me in there" he whined.

Danny was working his jaw, trying to bite Melvin's hand.

"If you let Danny go now we may be able to make a deal" Nicole lied "But if you kill him, there is nothing we can do for you" she kept her voice low and calm, talking Melvin down.

"What kind of deal?" Melvin didn't move his hand at all.

"I don't know exactly but I can talk to the DA and explain that you showed mercy and they may be able to arrange something" Nicole said.

She let her gun drop just a bit "See, I'm trusting you, you trust me now okay?" she half smiled, kindly, warmly.

Melvin seemed to relax, Danny felt the tension draining away but his hand was still clamped over Danny's face and Danny was seeing black spots and purple streaks in his vision. He 'mm'd' vehemently at Nicole urging her to hurry up.

"I could walk away" Melvin sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

"M-maybe" Nicole stumbled over the blatant lie "But you have to let him go right now because he's fading" Nicole let a note of urgency enter her voice.

Melvin still didn't release Danny and took a step back "I walk away" Melvin said more firmly "You want him" he shook Danny a little "I walk away, right now"

Nicole blinked at him, raising an eyebrow, an 'oh please' look on her face. She sighed. "He armed?" she looked directly at Danny, who shook his head no minutely

"Let him go Mel" Nicole said blankly.

"Only once I'm free and clear" Melvin growled, sounding more confident.

"For Fucks sake, Melvin I'm a crack shot, you don't have a gun and Danny is a lot smaller than you. Let him go or die" she raised her gun again aiming it squarely at Melvin's head.

"What?" Melvin asked, all trace of confidence gone from his voice.

Danny shot an elbow awkwardly backwards, making Melvin 'oof' painfully and loosen his grip enough that Danny ducked and Nicole fired.

Danny fell on his front, groaning as more pain shot through his arm, sucking in a big breath. The spots faded from his vision and the headache receded as he breathed out and in again. "Danny!" Nicole was kneeling at his side.

"I'm good, where's Tracy?" Danny asked as Mac and Mike came into the attic.

"Down stairs with a female officer, she's sayin he never touched her, you stopped him" Mike joined Nicole, helping Danny to stand up.

Melvin was sitting against the wall, one hand pressed to the wound on his shoulder, whimpering incoherently.

"Good shootin Tex" Mike grinned at his partner.

"The stupid twat actually thought he could walk away" Nicole shrugged.

"Paramedics are down stairs with Tracy…we should take Danny down there and make sure they take a really long time checkin him out before we send em up for Mel here" Mac stated.

"Yeah" Mike said.

"Cos we don't want to have a cop die because some one was distracted" Mac was staring at Melvin, making no move to help him.

"Plus he's shit and deserves to suffer so we should avoid helping him in any way at all" Danny said.

"Yeah, that too. Danny where's your gun?" Mac asked "And I'll need yours too Nicole, protocol" Mac shrugged.

"S'over there somewhere, he took it away from me" Danny motioned near the bed.

"Oh my god" Nicole breathed as she spotted the bed.

"Yeah, and his kids school is across the street. He held em that awkward way so they could see her, I figure so he could say she had betrayed them" Danny told them.

Mike cocked his head to one side like a bird. "Really?" he asked, his voice oddly empty.

He turned to Melvin and pulled on a pair of rubber gloves, protocol when dealing with blood. He crouched, gripping Melvin's injured shoulder way tighter than was strictly necessary and squeezed, making the man cry out.

"Don't want him bleeding to death on us" Mike looked around at the others who all nodded. "You guys go ahead and take Danny downstairs, get him seen to, Mac and me will preserve the scene and make sure Mel here doesn't run away"

"Sounds good to me" Nicole nodded.

"Flack should be on his way up, let him know we're gonna need kits and people to close off the scene for me…oh and call Aiden and Stella in" Mac told Danny.

Danny nodded again as Nicole helped him climb awkwardly down the stairs, avoiding touching his bad arm. He swayed slightly as they reached the bottom groaning as his head began to thump in time with his pulse.

"There are times," he began to tell her as he negotiated the flight of stairs leading to the ground floor "When I really truly hate this job"

They reached the door and walked out side, heading automatically for the fleet of ambulances that had pulled up. Tracy was wrapped in a blanket, sitting beside a female officer who was talking to her softly.

"Is this one of them?" Nicole asked.

Tracy looked up and saw Danny, running over and throwing herself into his arms with a cry. She hugged him the way only children can, that impossibly tight grip full of so much trust and affection. Danny hugged her back as she began to weep into his shoulder, her façade of bravery finally crumbling now that she knew she was safe.

Danny looked up at Nicole, his eyes wavering with unshed tears "No" he whispered.

He blinked once and the tears where gone, and Danny was Danny again. "Hey, hey, hey?" He gave a gentle laugh "Whatsamatter sweetie, you're okay now, its okay" he soothed Tracy effortlessly, walking with her over to an ambulance and sitting on the back step so a medic could examine him.

Nicole sat on the opposite side of Tracy, letting the girl take her hand and squeeze it tight.

Danny sighed wearily and closed his eyes. He said a silent prayer of thanks that they had gotten here in time, and silent prayer of apology to those they had been unable to save.

Finished at last. Thanks for R+R'n, its been fun. Let me know if you want more because I'm well up for the writing! Laters my dears.xxxxx


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